


Salvation.

by rubyrosettared



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Genre: AU The Falcon and The Winter Soldier universe, Acceptance, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Completely AU, Corrie Harris, F/M, Family, Found Family, Friends to Lovers trope, Gen, Love, Recovering! Bucky, Trust, a variety of OC'S, friendships, recovering bucky, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 77,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28035909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubyrosettared/pseuds/rubyrosettared
Summary: Salvation: The act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss or destruction. The state of being saved or protected from harm. Deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.A story that starts with 'The Beat of His Heart' and continues in 'Absolution' and ends with 'Salvation'.Completely AU. Bucky is coming to terms with how his life has changed since the events of 'Endgame as he deals with family, friendships and more.As he forms a bond with Corrie, he's aware that she's hiding something. Does she trust him enough to share it with him, with Sam? Only time will tell.
Relationships: James Bucky Barnes/OC
Comments: 34
Kudos: 8





	1. In The Middle of The Night.

**In The Middle Of The Night.**

He stares at his reflection in the mirror and for a moment he’s unable to speak.

“What do you think?” Corrie’s voice is careful, almost cautious. He continues to stare. It’s the same face, the same blue eyes, the same slight frown that mars his brow and yet…

“The last time my hair was this short, FDR was President,” he murmurs. Behind him the barber approaches and whips away the protective cape covering his clothing. He offers a tentative smile before moving away.

“I think you’ve scared Eddie,” Corrie murmurs and this makes him look at her. A deeper frown on his face.

“Eddie?”

“The guy who just cut your hair. You have the most ferocious scowl. Some might say terrifying.” Corrie grins at him as she gets up from her seat. Bucky blinks in surprise before catching Eddie’s attention through the mirror again. The frown disappears.

“Sorry…I’m sorry, man. It’s nothing personal, I’ve been told I have a scary…” He looks at Corrie for clarification.

“Resting face…” she supplies, “You have a very scary resting face.”

He looks back at Eddie. “What she said,” he confirms.

“By Sam?” Corrie enquires, coming to stand behind him. He gives a brief eyeroll.

“Who else,” he mutters and Corrie grins again and takes a step back as Bucky slowly lifts his right hand and pulls his fingers through considerably shorter hair.

“You won’t be able to hide behind it anymore,” she reminds him as he lowers his hand again. Stares at his reflection some more. “I’ve noticed you’ve done it more than once. How long was it that length?”

“Decades. If it got too long, one of my handlers or some other guy would carefully approach and hack at it here and there. I guess it was too much for them to actually cut it properly.”

“Maybe they were too scared to or maybe they realised how much more menacing you looked. I like this new look though, it suits you more and it will be much easier to maintain. Save you a fortune on shampoo too.” She smiles again as Bucky climbs out of the barber’s chair and stands beside her.

“I hadn’t thought of that. I’m just happy to get it off my face permanently. I’ve lost count of how many times people have given me a wide berth these past few months.”

“Now you see where HYDRA were coming from,” she reminds him in a low voice.

The look he gives her in response makes her smile.

* * *

“Thanks for coming with me today,” he comments as they leave the barber shop.

“Not a problem, happy to help.” She glances up at him as she falls into step beside him.

“Sam is a good guy but sometimes…”

“He can be a bit too much? I get it. He’s got a great sense of humour but something like that isn’t what you’re looking for right now,” Corrie fills in and Bucky just nods. He then burrows deeper into his jacket, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Damn breeze whistling around the back of my neck though. Haven’t missed that,” he mutters and Corrie chuckles.

* * *

Corrie senses Bucky’s reluctance as they make their way back to the car. Perhaps he’s bracing himself for some of Wilson’s special brand of humour, she doesn’t know but he’s reverted to being quiet, almost monosyllabic.

“You okay?” she asks anyway as they make their way back to where her SUV is parked. Bucky glances at her and a mild frown comes and goes across his face.

“Yeah. Why?”

“You’re just a bit quiet, that’s all,”

“I’m always a bit quiet, Corrie. Apparently it’s my default setting,” he responds and Corrie smiles faintly. Sam again. He’s not wrong there.

“Okay. I was just checking.”

“Y’know, I appreciate the sentiment but it’s not necessary,” he reminds her, voice still low. She glances at him. She still gets a slight jolt seeing him with shorter, neater hair but damn if he doesn’t suit it.

“It’s part of my job to know that you’re okay Barnes. You’re very good at hiding how you’re feeling, with good reason but you also need to keep reminding yourself that we’re not the enemy here and to admit that on occasion you’re having an off day doesn’t make you weak.”

“I know,” Bucky agrees, “but sometimes I just don’t feel like talking.”

* * *

“How are things going with Katie?” she enquires a short while later.

“Okay, I think.”

“You think?”

He glances at her. “She’s a sweet kid, reminds me a lot of my youngest sister in how kind and considerate and helpful she is. I hung out with her at the bookstore on Friday, just watching her and helping out where possible and she’s a sweetheart but she also has a backbone of steel, always up for a challenge. Not a lot fazes her.” They reach the SUV and Corrie presses the fob to unlock it. They get in.

“You didn’t ask her to come with you today?” Corrie asks and he looks across at her as he pulls his seatbelt across and clicks it into place.

“She’s working and I didn’t think it’d be something she’d be interested in. We’re still getting to know each other, y’know.”

“Yeah, I do. You’re still just getting to know me too.”

“I’ve worked with you longer. I know Katie’s my biological family but you…I don’t have to keep too many secrets from you mainly because you know them all.”

Corrie fairly grins at him “I do, don’t I? Does she at least know you’re getting a haircut?”

“Yeah, kinda. Just not when.”

“Well today was a spur of the moment thing. Maybe you should take a selfie and text her a heads up or something?”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Why not?”

“I’m just not.”

“You want me to take the picture and send it?” He all but glares at her from the corner of his eye and she sighs. “Fine,” she mutters as she starts up the engine and they head out.

* * *

They head into the complex. Corrie knows that Sam is on site and so does Bucky by the way he subtly straightens his shoulders and takes a slow deep breath. 

Sam is watching a football game on the big screen in the communal area as the two make their entrance. He’s tucked in the corner of the couch directly opposite the screen, an arm draped across its back, his attention on the game. Bucky doesn’t pay much attention to it. Baseball is more his thing and occasionally basketball. His stomach tightens as Sam slowly turns his head in their direction.

“Hey… _woah_ …” His eyes widen slowly as he takes in Bucky’s new appearance and just like that the game is forgotten.

“Okay…get it all out…get it over with,” Bucky sighs with a roll of his eyes and a deep sigh. He pauses as Sam continues to take him in.

“Damn you clean up _good_!” he announces. Bucky begins to feel the knot in his stomach loosen slightly and he lifts his right hand and pulls his fingers through the hair on the top of his head again.

“I keep telling you that I didn’t always look like I was homeless,” he murmurs, semi-embarrassed.

“The long hair was kinda scary, you have to agree with me there,” Sam replies and he slowly smiles.

“Kinda suited the purpose at the time but new start and all of that,” Bucky answers, all of a sudden wanting to be out of there and away from Sam’s intense scrutiny.

“It suits you man, really. You look great.”

“Thanks.”

“Hell, you never know, maybe you’ll actually attract a girl or two this time instead of scaring them away.”

Bucky rolls his eyes once more. “Damn it, Sam,” he breathes, exasperated.

* * *

Corrie can’t sleep. It happens sometimes and she’s learned to adapt. The complex is quiet, Sam and Bucky retreating to their room after a companionable evening where all three of them cobbled together an evening meal that they shared before chilling out in the living area and watching something on a streaming channel. It had been nice. They don’t do it often enough. They’ve shared the occasional meal, sat in the living area and talked about stuff though Corrie has noticed that it’s usually she and Sam who do most of the talking, Bucky just listens. He contributes here and there but nothing of any great importance, no big secrets. She guesses he’s still coming to grips with the idea of having actual friends and being sociable and she hopes that the more genial side of him will begin to emerge more fully in the future. She’s seen glimpses and she believes there’s a charming guy beneath all of the layers. He just needs to relax enough to allow those layers to be peeled away but he’s not quite there yet.

She sighs quietly, concentrating on the laptop screen resting on upturned knees. It’s her personal computer, heavily encrypted and secure. No one can get into it but her. She’s made sure of it. Any unauthorised access will cause the machine to shut down permanently, all information irretrievable. It saves on it falling into the wrong hands. A search on a hunch has proved fruitless, as she expected it might but she checked anyway. Her eyes begin to feel gritty and she entertains the thought of shutting the laptop down and calling it a night. A low dull thump makes her lift her head. The hair on the back of her neck prickles and she listens intently. Once the guys are in their rooms then the complex usually goes silent. It could be something or nothing but past experience has her checking.

“AMI…status update on Sam Wilson and James Barnes,” she requests, keeping her voice deliberately low. “Information to be for my ears only,” she adds.

“Acknowledged.” There’s a brief pause. “Sam Wilson is sleeping.” There’s another, slightly longer pause.

“And James Barnes?” Corrie prompts.

“James Barnes is out of bed and moving,” AMI supplies.

Corrie frowns. _Out of bed and moving? What does that mean exactly?_ Her eyes widen when she all of a sudden realises.

“AMI, is he awake?” she then asks. Another brief intermission.

“Negative.”

Corrie quietly sighs as she shuts down her laptop. She climbs out of her bed when she hears a door open in the complex. His personnel file, as extensive as it is, has made no mention of sleep-walking though given what he’s been through, she shouldn’t be surprised. He’s been under considerable stress recently: the job along with the unexpected introduction of a biological great-niece into the mix. Apparently Katie is the only member of his family who knows he’s alive and in New York.

She chews on her bottom lip as she briefly contemplates what to do next. Damn it, it’s her job to look after them, she’s even told them that a time or two, Bucky just today. If he’s sleep-walking then there’s no guarantee that he won’t hurt himself. Would he become violent if she tries to wake him? It’s all new ground and she contemplates waking Sam to help her out, just in case. She moves across the room and carefully opens the door. She peeks out and her eyes widen slightly when she sees Bucky just outside of his bedroom door. She can just make him out in the shadows. He drops to his knees and stays there, swaying slightly. Corrie’s eyes widen in alarm and she hurries towards him, bare feet not making a sound, all thoughts of waking Sam forgotten for now.

“Bucky?” she whispers but he doesn’t respond. His head is lowered, his chin all but resting on his chest. She drops down onto her knees beside him but she doesn’t touch him. She can hear the heavy rasp of his breathing, his chest heaving with the effort. He’s just wearing pyjama bottoms, his upper body bare and it’s the first time she’s seen his left arm in all of its…she doesn’t want to say glory but it’s truly a sight to behold.

The entire shoulder joint has been replaced with dark coloured vibranium, the plates edged in dull gold. She’s seen images of the old arm which used to be a bright silver colour, a red star emblazoned on the shoulder, almost like a brand but the new arm is brand free. She knows the old one was destroyed in a fight almost to the death in the Siberian HYDRA HQ, annihilated by the blast of a laser from Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. This one was created and upgraded by the Wakandan Princess, Shuri. Every now and again she sends them emails and updates for the cybernetics that the engineering and cybernetic division devour.

“Bucky,” she whispers again.

“Can’t get away from them,” he whispers. Corrie frowns.

“Can’t get away from who?” she asks and sees how he turns his head and looks in her direction but she knows that he’s not looking at her, more like looking through her. His eyes are vacant.

“Do you know where you are?” she asks him.

“I… no..”

“Do you know who you are?” she asks.

“I’m…” She sees a faint frown ripple across his brow and she hears him say something, in Russian and she understands.

 _Ya gotov otvechat._ Ready to comply.

Hadn’t the Winter Soldier programming been dismantled? She’s sure he’s undergone extensive de-programming while in Wakanda, he even agreed to undergo testing here and passed with flying colours. How could any of it remain? Is it a HYDRA trap, ready to be sprung at short notice? She gives herself a brief mental shake. Of course not, the best people in the country have been working on him and all of them have proclaimed him to be successfully de-programmed.

So what the hell’s going on?

“Hey…Barnes,” she whispers and this time she does touch him, she gently cups the side of his face with the palm of her hand, feeling the fiery heat of his skin and the rasp of two day old stubble against her fingers. She feels how he startles, a very slight stiffening of muscle. Corrie waits, her heart beginning to bang against her ribcage. He gives a blink and stares at her in surprise. Looks down at himself then back at her. She carefully lowers her hand, quietly relieved that he wasn’t violent at being woken up.

“You okay?” she enquires softly. She watches how he looks around the shadow darkened room in bewilderment.

“How did I…”

“End up here? You decided to go walkabouts. Don’t worry, it can happen and nothing happened except for a little Russian conversation. You’ve had a lot on your mind recently,” she answers, keeping her voice quiet and non-judgmental.

“Damn it,” he mutters. Slowly Corrie gets to her feet and Bucky copies. He stands still and covers his face with his hands for a moment before swiping down. He glances at her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologises, his voice low and husky.

“You didn’t wake me,” she replies and he looks at her in surprise and she just shrugs.

“Bad dream?” she asks instead.

“Something like that. I used to have nightmares…no…they were more like night terrors. I’d scream the place down by all accounts. Wake up in all kinds of strange places. That was before I went to Wakanda. I wasn’t yelling, was I?”

“No. Just the Russian. I just heard you get out of bed. Before Wakanda…you mean before you were deprogrammed?” He just nods and then he frowns as he catches up with what Corrie has said.

“I spoke Russian?”

Corrie nods. “Yeah. Ready to comply. A throwback to the old days.” She sees his look of surprise.

“You speak Russian?”

“A little.”

For a moment they just look at each other, the silence dropping between them all of a sudden somewhat awkward, embarrassed.

“Want some tea?” she asks instead, deliberately heading towards the kitchen area, giving him some much needed space, switching on a single light. She looks at him over her shoulder. He’s still standing in the same place, still looking a little confused. He then looks down again and she sees the moment he realises he’s half naked.

“Sure. I’ll be back in a second.” She watches as he turns and half stumbles back into his room, emerging a moment or two later, pulling a t-shirt on. She knows that he’s strong, super strong even and that he takes care of himself but the sight of those muscles on display earlier. She turns back to her task of filling the tea kettle.

_Damn._

* * *

“You don’t sleep well?” he asks, coming to stand beside her. She doesn’t startle this time, used to his silent approaches now. Instead she looks at him.

“From time to time. Insomnia can be a bitch,” she replies and then she busies herself with the task of locating cups and tea bags whilst the tea kettle begins to boil.

“Yeah.”

“You go through the same?”

“Some nights. I try and tire myself out. Swim, go to the gym, find something busy to do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve learned how to get by on little sleep.” He pauses, frowning somewhat darkly for a moment, “Never used to matter to HYDRA. Wasn’t unusual to be working for three days and nights straight. When you’re kept in suspended animation, you get used to not sleeping in the conventional sense.”

“Three days?” she breathes. Bucky just shrugs.

“They’d pump me with drugs to keep me going, the downside being that they’d make me violent when I came down from them. So they chose their moments with care, made sure they weren’t around for the aftermath. I took out a few unsuspecting handlers that way.” He sound so matter of fact. She’s amazed he remembers, and that he’s willing to talk about it.

“So you still have nights where you can’t sleep, or you have bad dreams. Do you remember what you were dreaming about tonight?”

“Bits and pieces. I never really remember all of it. Tonight was the battle of Wakanda, fighting those…things…” She knows he means Thanos’s army of aliens. She’s read the reports of ravening snarling dog like creatures, capable of ripping apart their prey with sharp teeth and claws. The Avengers and their allies had faced them on the battlefield both in Wakanda and at the Avengers HQ here in New York. They were fearsome and feared.

“It must’ve been terrifying,” she murmurs as she begins to make tea.

“Milk? Sugar?” she then enquires.

“I’m not sure. Little bit of milk maybe?” Bucky replies and she looks at him.

“You’ve never had tea before?”

He just shakes his head and she quietly sighs. Americans and their coffee.

“Well I’ll make it how I like it which is with just a splash of milk. Feel free to doctor it accordingly if you don’t like it. I wasn’t going to suggest coffee to you because the goal is to hopefully get you back to sleep. Coffee won’t achieve that objective.”

She extracts milk from the fridge and add a little to both cups, stirring both with a teaspoon before picking up one cup and handing it to him.

“Thanks,” he murmurs, accepting it.

“So was it?” she enquires as she picks up her own cup. She glances at him over the rim.

“Was what?”

“The Battle of Wakanda. Terrifying. Coming back here and doing it all over again,” she supplies, taking a small delicate sip of her tea. He copies and she sees the faint frown as he tastes the tea and then takes another sip. Maybe there’s hope for him yet.

“Yeah. It was.”

“You were taken by The Blip.” This isn’t a question, it’s in his personnel file. He vanished into the ether for five years, the same as Sam did along with Fury, Maria Hill and Sharon Carter. God, she’d been so relieved when he’d returned.

“You weren’t?”

Corrie just shakes her head.

“But I watched people I cared about just disintegrate into the ether, float away on the breeze. Right in front of me.”

“Were you working for SHIELD then?” he asks. He watches her. He can see that she’s reliving that moment, all but see it playing out behind her eyes.

“I was. I was originally in London and I was then transferred to New York just before, experienced the chaos Thanos created first hand, witnessed the aftermath. I got to know Steve, Natasha, the other surviving Avengers, met some new ones. Tried to make sense of everything. Tried not to panic like everyone else,” she sighs. She remembers the incoherent sense of grief, of trying to help people to cope, to understand, to regroup, to move on. Then there was the sense of desperation that was all encompassing, as was the disbelief that the Avengers had lost that first great battle in faraway Wakanda and that they had to live with such devastating consequences. Until the plan that undid all of that damage but there was consequences of that too, one of them resulting in all of this.

“Why did you come over here?” he asks. He sees a look that crosses her face, it’s so quick that he almost misses it.

“Because I asked and because I wanted to. After the Blip happened, I was needed behind the scenes. With my skill set, I was brought in to help coordinate missions, collate information, that kind of thing. Apparently I’m the best at what I do.” Another sip of tea. Bucky gets the impression that that isn’t the whole story but he doesn’t push it.

“Well we have no complaints,” he murmurs and is rewarded by Corrie’s faint smile and she lifts her tea cup in a parody of a toast.

“That’s good to know, thanks,” she acknowledges just as quietly. He watches as she heads into the living area and lowers herself down onto one of the couches. After a moment, he follows her and takes a seat on the opposite end of the one she occupies.

“So how are you finding your first cup of tea?” Corrie enquires and Bucky looks down at it.

“It’s not so bad.”

“You see? When I suggest tea to Sam, he looks at me like I’m trying to poison him. Tea is soothing. It may contain caffeine but not in the amounts that coffee does so you have a better chance of actually getting back to sleep within an achievable time frame,” she replies. Bucky bites back a smile at her good natured vehemence.

“Coffee is the best for getting the engines running early in the morning though, the stronger the better for me.”

“So I’ve noticed. I’m surprised you still have a functioning stomach lining,” she responds with a roll of the eyes he finds charming. She then regards him for a moment or two.

“Can I ask you something though and by all means, feel free not to answer,” Corrie begins. For a moment Bucky just stares back and then he slowly shrugs.

“Sure. What do you wanna know?”

“You were taken by The Blip. What was it like? Do you remember?”

She watches how he contemplates how he’s going to answer her. She’s always been curious about what it must’ve been like but never been brave enough to ask anyone who’d been taken and then returned.

“It felt…weird I felt a little light headed, like I was gonna pass out and then nothing.”

“And coming back?”

“I woke up where I faded from and it was like I’d been in a really long, really deep dreamless sleep. Different from when I was held in suspended animation though. Just lights out, black.”

_It was confusing, opening his eyes and staring up into a blue bowl sky, not a cloud in sight, a hot wind blowing over him. Then a shadow blotted out brilliant sunlight and he recognised T’Challa and his sister._

_“On your feet Sergeant Barnes, we have another battle to fight, a war to win,” he had told him, holding out a hand and hauling him upright. His head had swam for a moment and his eyes had gone wide when he saw the people standing around, looking equally confused._

_And then a man in a red cloak appeared, told them they were needed and to follow him._

“As God as my witness, we walked through a portal of fireworks to the Avengers HQ site, like walking through a door into another room,” Bucky tells her.

“That’s literal magic for you,” Corrie answers with another faint smile.

“If I said that to anyone else, they woulda thought I was crazy,” Bucky sighs.

“Maybe once upon a time, but not so much now I’d guess.”

“Still sounds crazy to me,” Bucky tells her with a slight shake of his head.

“The world was saved by Gods and superheroes, there’s no such thing as crazy anymore,” Corrie gently reminds him.


	2. Reality Bites.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky goes to visit family.
> 
> A/N: As far as I'm aware, while Bucky is the eldest of four siblings, only one was named and that was Becca so I've taken a little liberty with his other siblings. Plus the history behind his middle name is something I've also head cannoned a little bit. Around the time Bucky was born, it used to be a tradition that the eldest son had his mother's maiden name as his middle name. I know it was quite common in the UK so it's pure supposition on my part that it happened in the US too. Buchanan is a really unusual middle name and I've often wondered whether it was, in fact his mother's maiden name. So any errors are all my own and unintentional.

**Reality Bites.**

“Are you gonna say something or are you gonna keep looking at me like I grew an extra head?” Bucky enquires.

For a long moment Katie just stares at him.

“Umm…I don’t know what to say right now except maybe… _wow_.”

“Is that a good wow or a bad wow. Apparently there’s a difference these days.”

“Oh it’s a good wow, trust me. It’s just…I knew you were gonna do it, I just didn’t think it’d be so soon.”

“Well I didn’t _know_ I was gonna do it til I did. I try not to plan too far ahead if I can help it.” He watches as she shrugs on her coat and buttons it up.

“I like it. You don’t look so…”

“Homeless?”

This makes Katie chuckle.

“No…”

“Homicidal?”

Another chuckle as she slowly shakes her head, picking up a scarf and wrapping it around her neck, tucking the ends into the collar of her coat. She pulls on a matching woollen beanie.

“Stop it. I was going to say, scary..”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “That’s what Sam said,” he replies.

“Sam?”

“Another colleague. You haven’t met him yet.” He pulls a plain black ball cap out of the back pocket of his jeans and puts it on, adjusting the peak over his eyes.

She bites back a little smile at the ‘yet’ part of that sentence. He doesn’t talk about his work, his job and he only mentions Corrie in passing here and there. They tend to talk about safer topics: books, what’s happening in the world right now but more familiar, personal topics such as family and his line of work are carefully and judiciously waltzed around. She picks up a bunch of lovingly wrapped flowers from the kitchen counter.

“Ready?” she asks. Bucky just nods.

* * *

“You’re sure you want to do this?” she continues as together they head out of the apartment out into the cold late Fall air. It’s an early Sunday afternoon. The store is closed today.

“Yeah. I need to don’t you think?” Bucky sighs as they stand on the sidewalk and he watches for a moment as she locks the door. Then his eyes slowly scan his surroundings. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, if anything exactly, but he looks anyway. His attention returns to Katie as she comes to stand beside him. His hands are tucked into the pockets of his thick jacket and he doesn’t mind when Katie slides her hand into the crook of one arm, the flowers in her other as they begin to walk.

“It’s not far. A ten minute walk,” she tells him.

“You go often?”

“I used to visit weekly but nowadays, maybe twice a month.”

“And they’re all there?”

Katie nods. “They’re all there,” she promises.

* * *

A freezing wind blows somewhat insistently around them as they walk through ornate wrought iron gates. Above him the sky is white and grey, the cloud hanging low. It all feels very odd. To be in this oasis of peace and quiet and calm while all around stretching out as far as the eye can see are buildings; block upon block of buildings huddled together shoulder to shoulder, sheltering against the inclement weather. Businesses, domiciles, abandoned lots, traffic, noise, he can hear sirens, the impatient blare of traffic horns. It’s like there’s an invisible curtain between the bustle of humanity outside and the serenity of this place, almost like two separate universes.

And in a way, they are.

Bucky instinctively hunches his shoulders against the cold as his eyes take in the variety of gravestones and markers. Some are plain squares embedded in a well maintained lawn, others rise beseechingly towards the heavens, various monuments to late and lamented loved ones and dignitaries. Some of them look a little neglected, moss and other greenery creeping along surfaces roughened by time and the elements and others are scrupulously maintained and remembered with flowers and flags and other personal mementoes. Shrines to the past and the memories attached to them.

Katie has told him that the entire Barnes clan have been laid to rest here. By rights he should be one of them. According to Katie, he _is_ one of them. There’s a gravestone here with his name on it, placed here after his parents received the dreaded telegram, as a place to mourn and remember him even though they knew there wasn’t a body beneath it.

_If only they’d known the truth of it…_

As it is, the very knowledge there’s a grave here belonging to him sends a little icy shiver down his spine that has nothing to do with the weather.

They walk in companionable silence for a few moments more. Bucky sees one or two people around, no doubt visiting loved ones too. He allows his attention to rest on them for a scant few seconds as he passes them by.

“They’re over here,” Katie eventually tells him and she lets go of his arm and moves ahead of him as she heads towards a patch of lawn. His movements falter for a brief second and he feels his heart jump a little in his chest before he takes a deep breath and follows.

* * *

He sees several grave markers, all lined up in a neat row. His stride slows as Katie approaches one of them at the end of the line, closest to them both. He sees how she gives a faint smile as she crouches down in front of it and lifts out a bunch of half dead flowers from a small marble vase, lying them down on the grass beside her and she replaces them with the ones she’s brought along today. Eventually Bucky stops beside her and he reads the name on the marker: _Charles George Barnes_. His date of birth is six years after his own and the date of his death right before the Blip. He lived to a good age. The sorrow rests heavily in his chest with the knowledge that he didn’t get to see his brother again. That by the time he remembered that he _had_ a brother, it was too late.

According to Katie he thought the man in Vienna was him, even in the depths and confusion of dementia and it was a belief that was never shaken. He thinks back to what Katie had also said about Charlie, in that he would’ve accepted him back in his life no matter what. That he would’ve hugged him, maybe even forgiven him. That he would’ve understood. He wishes that he had more clear memories of him except the fuzzy confused flashes he currently has. He’d just been a kid when he’d been shipped off to England, barely had enough time to get to know him as a man. Katie has told him about him since, about those years he’s missed and he deeply misses those possibilities. He has a feeling they probably would’ve been the best of friends as well as close brothers. Katie looks up at him.

“You okay?” she asks.

Bucky sighs somewhat sadly, “Yeah,’ he murmurs as she gets to her feet and stands beside him.

“He lived to a good age though…ninety three…”

“He did and he was happy, Bucky. He was happy with his life, his family and his books.” Katie’s voice is soft and he looks at her.

“I’m glad. I wish…” She reaches for his hand and she squeezes it and shakes her head.

“No, don’t do that. If you’d come back before the Blip, if you’d known about us, even if he’d recognised you, grandpa wasn’t the man you knew.”

“Well. Given _my_ memory glitches, we’d probably be like two peas in a pod. Sorry…” He shakes his head and moves on to the next marker. Rebecca. _Becca._ He then looks at Katie in askance.

“She never married?”

Katie shakes her head. “No. She never did and it was never for the lack of suitors. Grandpa said she had plenty of them while growing up but she said that she had no time for any of that. She was the eldest girl, second oldest of the four, she kinda took over the family reins after her… _your_ …mother died.” She stares somewhat thoughtfully at the pristine white marble grave stone that announces the date of her birth and her death, proclaiming her to be a beloved daughter, sister and aunt.

“She was the one who gave Steve photos of you from before the War. He showed up at her home a couple or so years after he came out of the ice and asked whether she had photos of you both as kids and she gave him a couple of them. He never really explained why he wanted them and she just thought he was trying to reconnect to the people of his past, dead and alive.”

Bucky frowns pensively at this revelation. It would’ve been after the events of Project Insight. When they’d seen each other for the first time in seventy years. Steve had given him the photos in Wakanda. He’d never said where he’d got them from and he’d been so grateful for them, he’d never thought to ask. He gives his head another brief shake, reaching up to pull his cap more firmly down onto his head, the peak further over his eyes, blinking hard.

The next marker he sees is his youngest sister’s. Silently he reads the epitaph. Frowns.

“She married Louie Shaw?” he breathes. He then glances at Katie and sees her obvious surprise. “I’m sorry, I have no idea how or why I remembered that. He was a kid who lived further down the street, I think they went to school together. He mooned over her all the damn time. It woulda been pathetic if it wasn’t kinda sweet.” He returns his attention to the gravestone.

“I do remember grandpa saying Uncle Lou and Aunt Rose went to school together and he indeed mooned over her til his dying day. They were devoted to each other. Had six kids together. All still alive and dotted around Brooklyn.”

“God… _six_ … well she did love taking care of her baby dolls,” Bucky mutters half to himself and hears Katie’s faint laugh.

* * *

He stares at the memorial for the longest moment.

“Pop went first…” he murmurs. He reads the date. Maybe ten years after he’d disappeared. “Mama five years after. Not too long.” His heart aches. He then looks at Katie who stands quietly beside him.

“Her maiden name was Buchanan. Apparently I couldn’t quite wrap my mouth around such a long name and called my grandpa Buchanan, grandpa Bucky and because Buchanan was also my middle name, it transferred to me. I became Bucky. I think I was maybe, two?” He scrunches up his face as he tries to think back but he can only remember bits and pieces. “That’s what mama told me anyway. I don’t know if it’s true or not.” He shrugs and looks down at the marker again. His parents are buried together and he’s glad for that.

“That’s the story grandpa told me so it must’ve been,” Katie supplies and Bucky glances at her again. “He told me all kinds of stories about when you were all growing up. Apparently you were quite the tearaway, getting into scrapes with Steve. You weren’t scared of anything back then, you’d fight anyone, especially if they were picking on Steve, which apparently happened a lot.”

“Yeah. It did. Steve sure was scrawny but he had the heart of a lion, even then.” He was forever dragging him out of fights, fights he usually started. He huffs out a sigh, all of a sudden missing his best friend the most.

* * *

It’s the strangest feeling staring at his own gravestone. His name. His regiment. His date of birth and his date of death. Or so they all thought. The small square slab of marble is embedded into the grass. He remembers that time in flashes. The desperate expression on Steve’s face as he was reaching for him. Falling. Blinding whiteness and burning cold. He continues to stare at it. And pain. The cold is what he remembers the most, even after everything he’s gone through, it’s the overriding sense of cold that stays with him. He sees a bunch of faded flowers, the stems held together by a white ribbon lying beneath it and two or three little flags are stuck into the grass above it. There’s no moss or weeds growing on or around it, the family have looked after it over the decades. He was remembered, like Katie said. He lifts his head and looks across the other gravestones in the cemetery and he wonders if there are other servicemen buried here. Probably.

“You okay?” Katie enquires again and Bucky startles a little. He’d forgotten she was standing beside him. He glances at her, sees the concerned expression on her face.

“It’s just weird, y’know?” He looks back down.

“I know.”

“It’s been well taken care of though…”

“Yeah. It always has been, by each generation. Great grandma, then grandpa, my dad calls by once in a while and then there’s me. I make sure each grave is taken care of, that there are flowers, and I tell grandpa how my day or my week’s been going. Stupid stuff really.”

“If it makes you feel close to him then it’s not stupid,” he tells her and she looks at him and offers a faint smile.

“Part of me wishes that he was still here…”

Bucky opens his mouth to respond and at the same time sees a clod of earth beside his gravestone pop up. He hears a sound a brief second later. Almost like a whoosh. It makes him frown and he turns his head to look behind him.

* * *

He recognises the sound the second time, a thwack that barely ripples the air: a gunshot. Silencer. The bullet pings off the marker, sending shards of marble flying up into the air. His eyes widen at the same time that Katie’s do.

“What’s…” she begins. There’s another shot as Bucky grabs her and pulls her up against his body, ignoring her squeak of surprise. He wraps his left arm around her shoulders and keeps her pressed firmly up against him.

“Keep still,” he mutters and with his right hand he reaches behind him and pulls out the gun he has tucked into the waistband of his jeans. He aims it, his eyes searching for whoever it is that’s shooting at them. Another gunshot has him ducking as he feels it whizz past his head. Katie startles and clings to him at the same time. He sees a tall memorial stone, a solid looking plinth carved from polished granite and marble, an avenging angel at its summit a short distance but a straight line behind them both. Without saying a word, he hurries towards it, dragging Katie with him, keeping her behind him until they reach cover. He pushes her up against the smooth grey marble and for a moment he looks into her scared eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asks, his tone urgent.

She nods, rapidly, breathing hard. “What’s going on?” Her voice is a terrified squeak.

“I don’t know. Stay still, don’t move. My phone is in my right hand back pocket. Get it. Pull up my contacts. Call Corrie. Put it on speaker,” he commands. He returns his attention to the cemetery, his eyes searching.

* * *

“Bucky?” Corrie sounds surprised to hear from him.

“Corrie, I’m taking fire. A single gunman I think. I haven’t located him yet.”

“Are you okay?”

A bullet ricochets off the monument they’re hiding behind. Bucky holds onto Katie a little tighter.

“I’m not injured. I’m also not alone.” A brief but heavy silence.

“Who are you with?”

“Katie. I’m with Katie.” There’s a brief silence and they can both hear the sound of a keyboard rattling.

“I have your location. Stay put. Someone will be with you imminently.” There’s a click and the line goes dead. Katie looks up at Bucky as he takes his phone from her and pockets it.

“What now?”

“You stay put.”

“And you?” She watches how he moves them both closer to the edge of the grave monument and he peeks around it and then ducks back, at the same time keeping Katie out of harm’s way. He does it once more, eyes scan his surroundings and then they fix on something in the distance.

“Son of a bitch. There you are,” he mutters to himself. He makes to move away from her but freezes when Katie tightens her hold on him.

“You’ll be okay if you do as I’ve told you,” he tells her, his expression urgent but Katie doesn’t let go.

“Corrie said to stay put. She meant you too.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“But I won’t be. What if there’s more than one shooter?” Her eyes are wide and he takes in her sudden pallor, feels how tightly she grips onto his jacket. She’s terrified. He glances away. Briefly closes his eyes. Counts to five. Then he sighs and opens them. At the same time he hears the loud insistent blast of a police siren.

“Okay,” he tells her. He feels her shoulders loosen with a sigh and she presses her face to the front of his jacket. Bucky keeps his arm around her shoulders. Whoever it is shooting at them has stopped for now. He peeks around the edge of the monument and no longer sees him. So he’s either gone, spooked by that siren or he’s moved position and is going to try again. It’s what he would do under the circumstances: move to somewhere more secure and try again or get the hell out of Dodge. His eyes scan his immediate surroundings. Chances are he’s gone.

* * *

There’s been no more gunfire for a little while but Bucky stays vigilant. Katie remains still but he’s aware that she’s watching him, waiting to see what he’ll do next. He straightens when he sees Corrie approaching them and she’s not alone. He sees other operatives fanning out around her, checking out the layout obviously looking for their gunman or men. Sam is with her, taking in his surroundings, looking for the trouble that seems to be following Bucky and Bucky quietly sighs. Katie turns her head and she peers around the corner of the monument. Bucky pushes her back and she glares up at him.

“I’m not completely sure that the threat has gone,” he tells her.

“Well that looks like Ms Harris and she doesn’t look alarmed so I’m thinking that maybe it has,” she retorts. Bucky rolls his eyes.

“You don’t know that so let’s just wait and see,” he answers, his voice low but hard. Katie huffs out a sigh.

“This is part of your job.”

“Yeah. This is connected to what I do. Now you know and now you also know why I don’t like to talk about it.”

* * *

“Are you both okay?” Corrie enquires once she’s within hearing distance. Bucky looks down at his companion before he looks back at her and he nods.

Even from here she can see the frustration in his expression.

“I thought the place would be crawling with cops by now,” he comments, stepping away from Katie.

“Nearly was but Fury pulled in a couple of favours, said we’d deal with this in house,” Corrie answers and Bucky’s eyes widen marginally.

“And they backed off? Just like that?”

She gives a nonchalant shrug as she approaches Katie. “Yeah, just like that.” She pauses in front of the girl and scans her face. She’s white pale, eyes huge. “How are you doing, Miss Barnes?” she enquires, her tone calm, even conversational. The younger girl looks at her but doesn’t answer. Corrie then glances at Bucky.

“Why don’t you talk with Sam, go over with him what happened. I’ll talk to Miss Barnes here,” she suggests in a manner that is anything but calm to the experienced ear. She remains still, still regarding Katie until Bucky moves away, heading in Sam’s direction as requested.

“I’ll ask you again. How are you doing, really?” she enquires once Bucky is out of earshot. Katie gives a shaky sigh and pushes herself away from the tall gravestone.

“Really? I’ve been better.”

“Well it isn’t every day a person is shot at, in a cemetery of all places.” She steps away from Katie and at the same time turns and she sees the line of markers. She pushes her hands into the pocket of her winter jacket as she takes in the names.

“Ah. Okay. I was wondering what Bucky was doing here but now I understand. I should’ve really from the outset.”

“You bugged his phone?” Katie demands.

Corrie looks at her for a long level moment.

“Not bugged, Miss Barnes. All our phones have a GPS tracker. Bucky knows about it and he’s okay with it. Because of the nature of his job it’s a necessity.” Her tone drops a few degrees and she turns her head to look at the line of gravestones again.

“He still hasn’t told me what that is.”

“And if he’s sensible, he won’t.” Corrie takes a slow deep breath and looks at the younger woman again. “He can’t. Even after what happened today.”

“Someone shot at us!”

“Someone shot at _him._ Unfortunately you were just collateral…damage I suppose the term is. We’ve yet to figure out why. Did you see anyone suspicious on your way here? Were you aware of anyone following you from your home to here? Did you tell anyone what you were planning on doing today?” Corrie enquires. Katie shakes her head.

“You’re sure?” Corrie clarifies and sees a little fire return to Katie’s eyes.

“I’m sure! It was a spur of the moment trip more or less. We talked on the phone last night and I suggested we visit today. I didn’t see anyone strange lurking around the store or here. I’m sure Bucky would’ve mentioned it if we’d been followed. I’ve noticed he’s very vigilant. He waited while I was locking up the store and we were talking but his eyes were always on the move, checking out his surroundings.”

“That’s part of his training and, I suspect, part of who he is. Chances are if he had noticed someone following you, he wouldn’t have told you, he wouldn’t have wanted to worry or scare you. Again, that’s the nature of his job.”

* * *

“So who’s the girl?” Sam enquires.

They stand beside another grave, another suitably grand monument to the dead. This one is raised up off the ground and not unlike a great tomb with its impressive dimensions. It’s also the perfect location for a sniper’s nest which Bucky has already pointed out to Sam. One of the forensic geeks from the complex is already checking it out, once they’d received the all clear from Corrie to enter the cemetery.

Bucky turns his head and looks to where Katie and Corrie look to be having quite an intense conversation. He glances back to the forensics geek and takes a few steps away from them anyway. Sam follows.

“That’s Katie.” He keeps his voice low.

“Katie, huh?” Bucky looks at him, at the twinkle in his eye and he gives his head a slow shake.

“It’s not what you’re thinking of, pal. She’s family. Specifically my great niece, my brother Charlie’s grandkid.” He watches Sam’s expression change to one of blank shock.

“Wait a minute… _she’s_ …”

“Related to me? Yeah.”

Sam’s eyes light up as something obviously occurs to him. “She’s the reason why you came back from your shopping trip with Corrie all extra buttoned down and brooding. Her? I thought it was to do with the business with Rumlow’s brother.”

Bucky shakes his head.

“When did this happen?”

“In her bookstore. I went in to look around, to shop. I came out with a great niece.”

“And that was the same day you encountered Rumlow’s little brother? Man, you had one _hell_ of a day that day!”

“Yeah. It would seem so.” Bucky looks around the cemetery. “And I’d appreciate it if you could keep that piece of information to yourself. Apart from Corrie, you’re the only other one who knows who she is and her relationship to me. I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

“Does she have any other family? More importantly, do you?”

“Apparently I have nieces and nephews and even more great nieces and nephews. All over Brooklyn. Katie says that they’d all love to meet me, get to know me but y’know…” Bucky just shrugs.

“Well I know you’re not exactly a social butterfly but damn, it must be intimidating knowing you have all that family nearby. And she hasn’t told them about you?”

Bucky just shakes his head. “Because I asked her not to. It’s far too soon and after today, I’m not even sure it’s a good idea anymore.”

“That’s not fair on her man, being expected to keep your existence in her life a secret from the rest of her family.”

Bucky sighs long and low. “I know but I think it’s for the best right now.”

* * *

They walk back to the row of gravestones and Bucky watches as Sam pauses in front of the one with his name on. Sees how he slowly lifts his head and looks at him. He shrugs one shoulder.

“Yeah, I know…”

“You’re thinking that I think it’s creepy. Would it surprise you to hear that I don’t? Your family thought you were KIA but without a body they still needed a place to remember you. It’s…poignant.” His attention is diverted by Corrie and Katie’s slow approach.

“You found out where your sniper was hiding.” It’s not a question. As a former sniper, Bucky would’ve known as well as from past experience. He just nods.

“Went straight to it. Didn’t even falter,” Sam responds.

“It’s where I would’ve gone but the difference being, I wouldn’t have missed, not from that distance or from that angle. I can’t see how he…or she…could have.”

“Unless they deliberately meant to, which makes me wonder why they’d do that?” Sam responds. Bucky huffs out a sigh and then turns as something obviously occurs to him. The group watch as he walks around the row of graves and stares down at the grass for a moment or two before crouching down. He then lifts up a small clod of earth and pokes around at the soil underneath.

“Ha…” he mutters to himself and straightens up. He looks at something in the palm of his left hand, hidden by the ever present black glove.

“What have you found?” Corrie enquires. Bucky turns in her direction and shows it to her.

It’s a bullet.


	3. Family Ties.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky and Katie have a conversation and the team attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery of who is targeting him. All errors are my own and unintentional.

**Family Ties.**

The SUV pulls up outside of the book store.

“Thanks for dropping me off,” Katie tells no one in particular. Bucky sees how she reaches for the door handle and she lets herself out.

“Damn it…Katie…” he mutters and climbs out of the vehicle.

He skirts around the back and joins Katie on the sidewalk. She’s at her door, looking inside of her purse for her key. She glances up at him and her expression is tight, unsmiling.

“We can’t leave things like this…we need to talk,” he begins. She doesn’t say anything to that, just nods her head as she continues to scrabble through her purse. She’s barely said a word since she and Corrie had returned to his side. Sam of course turned on the charm once he’d introduced himself to her but she’d barely been able to raise a smile. She’d accepted their offer of an escort home with an indifferent shrug of her shoulders and climbed into the back of the SUV with equally little conversation. Bucky had got in beside her and had watched her worriedly for the duration of the trip back. Corrie and Sam stayed up front and maybe for the first time since Bucky’s known him, Sam has kept his mouth shut.

“Hey.” He rests his hand on her shoulder and she pauses what she’s doing but she doesn’t look at him.

“Katie.” He waits until she finally does.

“Can I come upstairs?” he requests. She holds his gaze for what feels like a long ten seconds and eventually, thankfully she nods. He’s relieved which is somewhat of a surprise to him, the old Bucky would’ve been content to leave things as they were, to take the out and disappear, chalk up the experience as a bust but this new Bucky…well he’s beginning to get used to the idea of having family around however small right at the moment and he’s reluctant to let it go for now. He watches as Katie locates her key and unlocks the door. He follows her in and back up to her apartment. Not before dropping Corrie a text to tell her he’ll be a while and to head back to the complex without him.

* * *

He watches as Katie shrugs off her coat and removes her hat and scarf, carefully hanging them up. He stands in the kitchen area, not knowing what else to do or say. He’d been fully expecting her to turn him away at the door.

“How are you feeling?” he asks her. Another silence, no less uncomfortable stretches between them. She looks at him and he very subtly straightens at the ice in her eyes.

“What happened today…was that connected to your job?” Her voice is low, hesitant.

“Probably.” Another silence and she looks away again.

“You had a gun.”

Bucky doesn’t respond. He doesn’t know how to but he hears the condemnation all the same. She doesn’t like guns. A lot of her generation don’t.

“We’re going to find out what happened and why and it will be dealt with,” he tells her instead.

“Are you always armed?”

It’s like she didn’t even hear him. Bucky takes a half step away from her at the question and pushes his hands into his jacket pockets and looks down at his feet for a brief second before making eye contact again. He nods. “I have to be.”

“So the day we met…”

“Was I carrying a gun? Yes I was. When I was in the Army, I was a trained sniper. I’m sure your grandpa woulda told you that, it wasn’t a secret. Today I have to carry a weapon with me at all times when I’m out of the complex, even if I’m off duty. Even if I’m spending time with…with family. If you have a problem with that then you need to tell me right now. All you need to know is that I’m fully trained and I’d like to think that I’m responsible. I’m not one of those Second Amendment Rights zealots you read about. It’s part of my _job_ to be armed.”

Katie looks at him with wide blue eyes. He can see that she’s realising a lot more about him now and she doesn’t know what to do with the information.

“Corrie told me that you had an issue with the GPS tracker being on my phone and I guess you have an issue with me carrying a gun,” he continues before she can open her mouth.

“All connected to a job you have that you can’t tell me about,” she huffs out.

“Because I can’t. Katie, I know you’ve had a shock today and you have every right to be mad at whoever shot at us and at me too but I warned you that my job was classified. I asked you not to ask me about it. I’m beginning to think I should’ve followed my instinct and walked away from you while I had the chance because it looks like you’re not handling it at all.”

He sees the shock that passes across her face, at the unfairness of his statement.

“I have tried my best to keep you separate from that part of my life. The only person who knew about your connection to me was Corrie and as of today, Sam. I’m going to have to include my boss in that circle too for security reasons.” Bucky frowns, hard. “Y’know, I like the fact that we’re hanging out, talking and getting to know each other. You’re something good that’s not connected to any of what I do or what I’ve done and I really look forward to seeing you when I can but if being associated with me puts you in danger then I _will_ walk away and you won’t see me again.” He pauses and watches her. She’s gone ghost white. He sighs somewhat regretfully.

“I know you feel like I’m making too many demands on you right now in keeping me a secret from the rest of our family and that it’s unfair of me to do that but I’m still learning here.” He gives his head a little shake, “I’m trying to adapt to living my life the way it is now and right now I’m doing okay I think and it’s because where my personal life is concerned, where _you’re_ concerned, it just works better for me. I wish I could be more open about who I am and what I do but right now I just can’t. I’m not being an asshole, this is who I am and I need you to at least meet me half way here and try to understand that.” He pauses, realising this has been the most he’s said in…ever, he thinks.

Katie just looks at him and he realises then that yeah, he _is_ being an asshole to her and in general and it makes him sad.

“You’re gonna need some time to process all of this so I’m going to go now and I hope that you’ll think about what happened today. You already know that you can call me at any time if you need to talk. If you have questions about what happened today then ask them. If you need me, I’ll be right there for you but then again, if you decide that all of this is too much, too complicated and you don’t want me to be a part of your life anymore then you can let me know about that too. Whatever you want, whatever you need. I just can’t talk to you about my job and I know you hate that but that’s how it has to be.”

Silence drops between them again. 

“Corrie seems to think that you were the target today. Do you agree with her?”

“It’s a line of enquiry but yeah, I think I was. Whoever that was, he’s not very good at his job. From where he was stashed away, he should’ve hit me, easily. I wasn’t expecting it, my guard was down. He had the advantage. If he wanted to kill me, he had the opportunity which makes me think that for whatever reason, he just wanted to let me know he was there. You weren’t his target, I don’t think he was after you but I need you to be vigilant just in case. If you notice something odd, at work or in general then call me or call Corrie. I’ll give you her number.”

“I still have it from when we first met.” She looks at him. The expression in her eyes is a little softer, a little calmer. He takes a hesitant step towards her.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, kiddo. You have my word on that.”

Katie tilts her head to one side as she absorbs what he’s said to her.

“You don’t often make promises, do you?”

“Not ones I can’t keep.” She smiles then and Bucky reaches out and draws her into his arms, smiles gently to himself when he feels her arms slide around his waist.

“You staying for dinner?” she asks as they draw apart. Bucky looks at her, somewhat surprised, his arm still across her shoulders.

“I would love to but I have to get back to base. Rain check?”

“Sure but stay for a cup of coffee anyway?”

“I can do that.”

* * *

It’s dark outside but nobody is taking any notice.

The team are congregated in the conference room. Corrie watches Bucky as he stares at the image up on the large screen.

“Soviet slug, no rifling…” she begins even though she knows fine well he recognises it.

“HYDRA?” He looks at Corrie who just shrugs.

“It looks that way, but…”

“You’re not convinced.”

“Are you?” she counters and Bucky sighs.

“Not really. I mean, under the circumstances, given what’s been going on the past five years, it would be the perfect opportunity for HYDRA to reform. It’s still chaotic out there, nothing has really gone back to what it was like before the Blip happened. I mean it’s close but it’ll take time and they could take advantage of that but…” Bucky frowns and shakes his head.

“It feels too quick,” Fury adds. Bucky just nods.

“And sloppy. HYDRA are planners. They’re insidious. Project Insight was the perfect example, they were inside of SHIELD for decades before anyone got a clue. _This?_ This is amateur hour by comparison.”

“So not HYDRA?” Sam enquires. Bucky looks at him.

“Well we can’t completely rule them out but I don’t think so. That bullet…Soviet slug with no rifling? Once upon a time that was one of mine.”

Silence drops in the room as everyone absorbs that slice of information.

“So you think it’s personal?” Sam asks.

“Yeah. I wasn’t the only Winter Soldier, I told you that in Berlin, remember?”

Sam slowly nods. “I do. You were very specific but Zemo got them all didn’t he? He wiped them all out in that bunker in Siberia. Were they sure they got them all?” He looks to Fury and Corrie.

“Yeah, every last one of ‘em. Present company excluded of course but yeah. All gone.” Fury confirms.

“So not a renegade Winter Soldier.”

Bucky then looks at Corrie.

“The guy who tried to steal your purse. Kelly…Rumlow or whatever… remember I told you he called me Soldat? That was something exclusive to HYDRA. No one else outside of that organisation called me that. It was either that or the Asset.”

“Yeah I do remember. Jonathan Kelly. You think he was the guy at the cemetery?”

Bucky slowly shrugs.

“It’s worth checking out.”

“Another thing has been bothering me,” Corrie adds. She looks at Bucky again.

“Twice now someone has come after you at places where no one knew you were going to be. Our shopping trip was a spur of the moment event. Only you and I knew where we going and what we were going to do. The visit to your relatives at the cemetery, only you and Katie knew about it. So how did our wannabe sniper know to show up today? We still haven’t figured out how he knew we were on that street the other time also.” She frowns.

“You checked our phones didn’t you?” Bucky asks and Corrie slowly nods.

“I did. They were clean. Though I could check them again.”

“Could the GPS be hacked?” he asks and Corrie shakes her head.

“No. We have some of the top computer technicians in the country here. Our security systems are Stark designed and therefore top notch.”

Another silence.

“There’s one other way someone could know where you were,” Sam begins and both Bucky and Corrie look at him. Sam points at Bucky.

“Your arm. When was the last time someone looked at it?”

Bucky gaze drops down to his left arm and his eyes slowly widen.

“The first time was right before we went on our first mission but it’s been checked out a couple of times since then. Shuri occasionally sends updates and either one of the technicians takes a look. Jason wanted to do a visual check the first time, make sure there wasn’t any wear or tear damage.”

“On a more or less brand new arm?” They all hear the scepticism in Sam’s voice.

“He’s fascinated by the cybernetics, or so he keeps telling me,” Bucky answers with a shrug.

“You have two technicians assigned to take care of your arm, who’s the other one?” Fury asks. Bucky slowly lifts his head and looks at him.

“Annie,” he tells him.

“Taylor?” Corrie clarifies and Bucky just nods. He looks back down at his arm and he slowly closes his fingers to make a fist and then just as slowly he uncurls them.

“One of them could’ve planted a tracking device in my arm?” he breathes in disbelief.

“I hope not, I vetted them both myself, but it makes sense,” Corrie murmurs, typing something into her tablet. She frowns.

“Let me get on with this, shouldn’t take long.” The three remaining men watch her head into her office, closing the door firmly behind her. Bucky watches her head to her desk and sit down, switching on her computer, all business.

“So we think Jonathan Kelly paid either Taylor or Reid to put a tracking device into Bucky’s arm?” Sam speculates. “Why?”

“Well I guess the most obvious reason is that he thinks he’s got a score to settle. Steve’s not around anymore to blame for his brother’s death so I suppose I’ll do in a pinch,” Bucky murmurs.

“Plus his brother was on the original STRIKE team. Maybe he’s just a little bit starstruck too. The Winter Soldier, the Asset. Your reputation was legendary within the organisation apparently.”

The look Bucky sends him is dark. “Yeah, so legendary a lot of the white hats within your organisation didn’t believe I existed.”

“The last thing I need to hear right now is a pissing contest. Put them away gentlemen, we’re on the same side now, remember?” Fury interrupts and both Bucky and Sam fall silent.

* * *

The meeting is over and they begin to file out.

“Barnes. A minute?” Fury requests and Bucky pauses and he waits until they’re alone. Sam had given him a loaded look but had left him alone at Bucky’s nod.

“So, a niece, huh?” Fury begins.

Bucky just shrugs. “A great niece. My brother Charlie’s grandkid. And she found me.”

“So Corrie explained. Gave you quite the start by all accounts.”

“Well how would you react? I didn’t think I had any family left. Turns out I got a lot.” He frowns.

“And what does she know? About you specifically?”

“Apart from returning from the dead? She saw the stuff that went down in Vienna and Berlin. She doesn’t know what I do here but she’s curious and she’s smart and it’s hard dancing around the truth.”

“It’s for her own good,” Fury chides. Bucky just looks at him.

“I know and I understand but it’s still difficult. I don’t like lying to her, she’s a good kid. Got a scare today but a good kid all the same.”

“Does she know about the Soldier?”

“The Asset?” At Fury’s nod, he huffs out a sigh.

“Bits and pieces. Like I said, she saw the coverage after Vienna on the news. According to Katie, my brother seemed pretty certain that was me. The rest of my family just thought it was a weird coincidence but seemed content with the explanation that it was someone masquerading as me. Katie also said that Charlie wasn’t convinced I would do the stuff the press reports said I’d done, that there would have to have been a reason why but he was in the final years of dementia and they just passed it off as him being lost in the past and getting the past and the present confused.” He frowns slightly. “I haven’t told her anything specific. Just that while I was alive, I couldn’t return to them. She knows some of the reasons why, namely that I was brainwashed by HYDRA and that it wasn’t me in Vienna.”

“And the situation now?”

“She’s the only one who knows. I asked her to keep my secret.”

“That’s a mighty big ask for someone so young.”

Bucky rubs at his forehead. “ I know but the more people who know, especially after today…they could be potential targets. Someone taking a shot at me made Katie a target and I can’t really cope with the extra trouble right now.” He lowers his hand.

“It could work to your benefit.”

“How? I don’t know them and they don’t know me, none of them were alive before I left for England during the war. All they have are family stories. All told through rose tinted glasses. They’re not gonna understand.”

“Yet Katie does.”

“Because she’s just one person and I’m fine with just one person knowing about me. For now.” He pauses, looks Fury in the eye again. “But one day I’d like to read Katie in to what I do here, when it’s safe to do so. I think I owe _her_ that.”

* * *

Bucky sits in the lab. Usually it’s just him and one of the technicians but today there’s an audience. He’s here with Fury, Sam, Corrie and either side of the door are two members of security and they’re all waiting for the arrival of the two technicians who are assigned to take care of his cybernetic left arm. He didn’t sleep at all well last night, plagued with thoughts that if there is a bug in his arm, that inadvertently or not, he led his niece into danger. So as well as being tired, he’s cranky. He looks across at Corrie. She looks like she’s slept about as well as he has. She’s a little pale as well as unsmiling and that dark red hair of hers has been brutally pinned back. She means business. The technicians are due here at any minute, the onsite AI which doesn’t seem to have a name unlike the domestic version, has announced that they’re on their way. The atmosphere is unbelievably tense. Bucky has no idea who, if anyone, is responsible but the fact that they’re all congregated in the lab makes him guess that someone is. He sneaks another glance Corrie’s way: she knows who.

He hasn’t had much time to get to know either technician, they didn’t really share much in the way of small talk. He remembers the guy, Jason being a little over enthusiastic in personality and seemingly awestruck at the thought of working on his arm, or at being in his company. He’s not sure which as after a while he began tuning him out. The other one, Annie, is quiet, shy and a little nervous in his presence. She reminds him of a little mouse with her big brown eyes and brown curls but she’s good at her job, works quickly and neatly and doesn’t overwhelm him with meaningless chatter. Of the two of them, he likes it better when she’s assigned to the arm. 

He watches them both enter the lab and take in the people present. They’ve both been informed to come to the lab as the cybernetics in Bucky’s arm have begun to malfunction which isn’t true. They’re both taken aback by the presence of so many people and especially at the presence of Nick Fury.

“We were told that you were having a problem with your arm, Sergeant Barnes?” Jason begins. He’s not as confident as he usually is. Bucky watches how his blue eyes dance between the people present. He’s nervous and to be honest, Bucky doesn’t blame him, he’d feel intimidated too.

“Yeah,” he begins, his voice low as he looks down at his hand. “I’m noticing problems with performance. Feels a bit slow,” he begins. He glances up and sees how Jason frowns and moves towards his arm.

“Recently?”

“Uh-huh. Just noticed it this morning,” he answers. He glances across at Annie but she hasn’t moved.

“Aren’t you curious too, Annie?” Corrie enquires from the side lines. Bucky watches how she looks at him; the look is long and assessing. In the meantime Jason moves away from where Bucky sits to get some equipment but Annie still hasn’t come any closer.

“Jason knows what he’s doing,” she replies but Bucky can hear the faintest tremor in her voice. He then looks across as Corrie heads over to her and at the same time, Sam and Fury surreptitiously move to the exit. That’s when he realises. He looks down at his hand again. Annie is the culprit. His attention is distracted by Jason’s return and he watches as he approaches him, his attention completely on the limb. There’s an access point on the arm, in the curve of the bicep, that allows entry to the cybernetics inside. To the uninitiated, it’s hidden away but Jason knows where it is and how to access it and he does so with ease. Bucky watches him as he slips on a pair of glasses that will allow him to investigate the arm’s inner workings in minute detail and then leans forward to peer in.

“I need you to take special care with your diagnostics, Jason,” Corrie instructs. Her voice is distinctly low, non-threatening but as Bucky’s gaze ticks upwards, he sees how Annie slowly straightens and he recognises the hunted expression that crosses her face. She knows that they suspect something, she would’ve had to have known the minute she walked into the lab and seen everyone in here. She’s obviously realised that brazening it out and hoping nothing is found isn’t going to work. He looks across to Sam and Fury.

“Do I need to be looking for something specifically?” Jason enquires, glancing up briefly, his eyes weirdly magnified by the lenses.

“I don’t know. You know the inner workings of the cybernetics better than just about anyone, you tell me. Perhaps there’s something there that shouldn’t be there. I’m sure you’ll know it the moment you see it,” Corrie replies.

Annie takes a half step away. Corrie carefully moves in sync towards her.

“Okay,” Jason murmurs, clearly puzzled and for a minute all that can be heard is the sound of parts of the cybernetics being tested. The atmosphere is tense and the technician is so fixed on his task that he seems to be the only person in the room unaware of it.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to find Ms Harris, everything seems to be as it should be. I can’t understand why you’re having problems with the arm, Sergeant Barnes, everything seems…oh wait…what’s this?”

Bucky looks down and sees Jason reach into his arm with a small pair of tweezers and a second later he brings something out. It’s smaller than a postage stamp and he stares at it quizzically.

“What is that?” he wonders. He looks up at Bucky and then at everyone else in the room and finally picks up on the atmosphere.

“Wait a minute. Was this a test?”

“It was, Jason and you’ve just passed,” Corrie answers.

* * *

In that moment, all hell breaks loose as a look of absolute panic crosses Annie’s face and she spins around. She freezes when she sees Sam standing in front of the only way out and he’s flanked by two security guards. She turns her head and looks at the window.

“It’s toughened glass, you’ll just bounce off it,” Corrie warns. Annie stares around with wide scared eyes.

“Please, you have to let me leave!” she breathes.

“You know we can’t do that,” Corrie tells her. Bucky watches any remaining colour leech from her already pale face.

“I’m so sorry…please let me go. I promise, you’ll never see me again,” she begs.

“Why would we want to do that?” Fury enquires and she turns and looks at him.

“They made me do it.”

“Who?”

“If I tell you, they’ll kill me, they’ll kill everyone who ever mattered to me.”

Fury slowly approaches her. “If you tell us who, we can protect you, we can protect your friends, your family.”

Annie shakes her head. “It’s too late, they already have my sister. If I don’t do what they want, they’ll kill her. I have to leave.”

Bucky looks down at his arm for a second and sees that Jason has closed it up. He slowly gets to his feet.

“Annie, right?” he begins and she spins around again. She’s nervy, off kilter and scared. The fear is coming off her in waves.

“Please don’t come any closer. I don’t want to hurt you,” she stammers and Bucky glances down and sees the blade of a scalpel in her hand. She must have had it hidden up her sleeve before she was summoned here.

“You can’t hurt me. I mean you can try but you don’t want to.” He looks at Corrie, at Fury and at Sam. Sees Fury’s hand at his holster and he slowly shakes his head. He watches as he carefully lowers his hand.

“You’re shaking like a leaf. Why don’t you give me the scalpel and we’ll sit down, have a conversation?”

“I’ve already said I need to leave. I need to leave right now!”

“And go where? You know you’re not getting out of here. The minute you try, we’ll track you down and when we do it will be out of our hands legally. At least here we can help you, help you get you in front of it. It’s not too late.” Bucky takes a slow step towards her. “You know us Annie. You know what we can do. We can help you, we can find your sister, get her away from whoever is holding her. All you need to do to get that started is to give me the scalpel.”

“If your sister is being held hostage then that will explain the lack of unexplained funds in your bank accounts. You have your checking account that your salary is paid into and a savings account that you allocate a certain amount into each month. You have a very tidy little nest egg. You live within your means, have no debts apart from student loans which you’re paying back regularly and promptly and your social media presence is next to non-existent which I find very unusual for someone your age,” Corrie interrupts. Annie glances at her and Bucky takes another step towards her but quick a flash Annie lashes out, and Bucky quickly jumps back. He lifts both hands up.

“C’mon Annie, give us a break here. Nobody is going to hurt you,” he tells her.

“If they find out that you know, they’ll kill my sister. The only reason I know that she’s still alive are the video messages they send me once a week, to make sure I keep my side of the bargain.”

“We can help you. We can get her back and hold those who took her responsible. What’s her name?” Corrie asks. Annie blinks but she doesn’t look away this time. She stares at Bucky, the blade held out in front of her.

“Her name is Amanda,” she whispers.

“Are they sending these messages to your phone?”

Annie shakes her head. “They sent me a prepaid cell, a burner phone.” She doesn’t take her eyes off Bucky but he sees the tears in them. “There was a video already on it, of Amanda. That’s how I knew they had her.”

“Do you have it with you?” he asks her and she nods. He holds out a hand.

“Do you want us to help you?” he asks, keeping his voice low. She doesn’t move.

“Listen to me, I know what it feels like to be forced to do something that you don’t want to do but you have to do it because bad things will happen to you or someone you care about if you don’t. The difference here is that we’re willing to help you out but you have to give me that scalpel first. The minute you do that, we’ll get to work.” Bucky takes a single step towards her. “C’mon Annie…I promise you, we’ll get Amanda back safe and sound. You need to trust us.” He waits. The atmosphere is heavy but slowly Annie places the scalpel in Bucky’s outstretched hand. The moment she lets go of it, Sam grabs onto her and Annie yelps in fright.

“We need to check that you’re not hiding any more surprises for us,” he tells her as Corrie pats her down. She pulls out two cell phones from two separate pockets.

“Which one is the prepaid?” she asks. Annie points to the one in her left hand.

“Hey…is that blood?” Sam interrupts, nodding his head at the scalpel in Bucky’s hand. He looks down at it and sees the blood smear on the blade and he frowns in confusion. He lifts his head and sees how Corrie grabs both of Annie’s hands and examines them.

“It’s not hers,” she announces and then looks back at Bucky and her eyes widen. He looks down and sees the bright red blood that oozes through his white singlet top. Sees the slice in the fabric. He lifts it up and his eyes widen when he sees the cut that scores the skin across his ribcage and his abdomen.

“Damn it,” he mutters, becoming aware of how it stings.

“Shit,” Corrie hisses and hurries towards him.

“It’s okay, it’s just a scratch,” he tells her, covering the wound with his hand. She pushes it away and examines it.

“It’s not just a scratch you idiot, the edges are gaping, you’re going to need stitches.” She looks across at Fury “We need to get him to the medical bay,” she tells him and Fury nods, pulling a phone out of his jacket pocket. She looks at Annie who is even paler now.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to,” she whispers.

“It’s okay, I know you didn’t,” Bucky replies.

“You need these,” Jason interrupts. Bucky looks at him, a little startled and sees him push a first aid box towards them. He’d completely forgotten he was there. He watches while Corrie opens it and roots through it, bringing out a wad of cotton gauze. She pushes his hand away once again as she presses it up against the wound and he barely represses a wince. She looks at him and her expression is far from amused.

“Just a scratch? My arse,” she mutters under her breath.


	4. Trust Issues.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing on from the previous chapter. The overlying theme in this one is trust, or the lack of it. Bucky and Corrie have a disagreement and Bucky attempts to get to the bottom of why Annie put the bug in his arm. All errors are my own and unintentional. Would love to hear your thoughts.

**Trust Issues.**

“Quit fussing, you know I heal quick,” Bucky tells her.

Corrie glares at him.

“Twelve stitches Bucky, that _scratch_ as you called it, has _twelve_ stitches holding the edges together. It may very well scar,” she retorts.

“It won’t because I heal quick and I _don’t_ scar,” he answers calmly.

“The ones on your shoulder beg to differ,” she retorts and he falls silent. She quietly sighs. She hadn’t meant for that to slip out the way that it did but there is extensive scarring around the left shoulder joint courtesy of god knows how many surgeries he went through decades ago.

“I’m sorry,” she sighs.

“It’s fine. You’re right but they’re the only scars that I have.”

* * *

Bucky is sitting on the edge of a gurney in the medical wing. A very capable doctor has stitched the edges of the wound together and bandaged fresh gauze padding into place. He’s been offered painkillers as well as instructions to keep an eye open for infection. Bucky only nods, too tired to explain that regular painkillers have next to no effect on him and the super-soldier serum coursing through his blood means that he doesn’t really get infections either. It stings a little when he takes a deeper breath, the stitches pulling but that won’t last long.

“I’ve had worse. It may not look like a scratch but it feels like it. How’s Annie?”

“How should I know? Sam and Fury have taken her to interrogation. Her phones are in the lab being picked apart. I’ll find out more when I get back.” She’s still testy. He can see the strain around her eyes, in the purse of her lips. She’s most definitely pissed off.

“I’m okay, there’s no need to worry,” he tells her in a lower voice. She looks into his eyes but doesn’t immediately answer.

“I vetted Annie myself. As far as I was concerned, she was perfect for the job.”

“And she was. It was after she started work here that she was approached. Family is a weak spot for some.” It’s something he’s still thinking about, “It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, if that’s the case then why does it feel like it is?” Her voice lowers, as does her head.

“Because you’re a perfectionist and you rely on the people around you to do their very best at all times too. You feel let down. I think we all do.” He watches how she slowly lifts her head and looks into his eyes. He realises hers are a distinctive shade of green and right now they’re so sad.

“I didn’t think anyone noticed,” she murmurs.

“We’d noticed.” Her lips tilt with the faintest of smiles at his confirmation. “You didn’t sleep so good last night, huh?” he asks.

“Did you?” Her tone is slightly tart.

“Not particularly. It’s not exactly a comforting thought wondering if there’s something in your arm monitoring your every move. I mean, if that’s what it is, it’s been monitoring us for the last, how long?, four, five months? And if it is a bug, what else is it apart from a tracker?”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Corrie admits, swallowing slowly. “If it has listening in capabilities, I dread to think what kind of information has been accessed. I should’ve been more careful, more observant, more…”

“Hey. No, you don’t get to do that. You’re a perfectionist, yeah. You’re hard working and you _are_ observant _and_ careful but what you’re not is psychic. No one knew this was going on. Nobody. Not even me.”

Another faint smile. “You’re good for a girl’s ego, Barnes.”

“Just telling you how I see it, that’s all. Are we done here?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’m also thinking it’s a good idea that you head back to quarters and rest up, quick healing capabilities or not.”

* * *

There’s a tap on the med bay door and both of them look to see Sam standing in the entrance.

“Has she told you who told her to plant the bug yet?” Corrie demands. She watches him slowly shake his head.

“She’s shut down. She saw Bucky bleeding and went radio silent.”

“Damn it,” Corrie hisses. In the meanwhile, Sam and Bucky exchange a single look.

“Do you think she’ll talk to me?” Bucky enquires, ignoring Corrie’s look of wide eyed surprise.

“No, you’re heading back to quarters, remember?” she reminds him but Bucky ignores her and continues to stare at Sam.

“That’s the thought Fury had and it’s why I’m here. She’s still in interrogation. Will you talk to her?”

“Gimme a few, I need to change my shirt but I’ll be there soon,” Bucky replies.

“I’ll let Fury know,” Sam confirms and heads away.

Corrie turns and she glares at Bucky.

“What happened to heading back to quarters and resting up?” she demands.

“Hey, that was your suggestion, not mine. I keep telling you I’m fine so I’m going to change my shirt and go and see if I can help out,” he answers calmly.

“That’s not part of your job!” she hisses at him and he goes very still.

“Yeah, because my job is to act tough and take out the bad guys with guns and fists, right? No, my _job_ is to help where I can and if that means sitting and talking to Annie to get _any_ piece of relevant information I can, then I’ll goddamn do it. You can’t stop me.” He glares at her and his eyes seem to glow with determination.

* * *

He’s still a little angry as he heads to their living quarters and to his room. He peels off the ruined shirt and dumps it onto his bed. He heads to his closet and opens it and rifles through the items of clothing he has hung up and pulls out a navy blue t-shirt, pulling it on, ignoring the pull of the stitches across his ribcage.

* * *

Bucky taps on the door and waits for Fury to invite him in. He then goes inside.

It’s a little room with a small table and four chairs and a two way mirror gracing one wall and that’s pretty much it.

Fury sits at the table but he’s alone. Bucky sees Annie seated on a chair that’s been placed beside the mirror. She’s curled up, her knees beneath her chin, her head bent, hair hiding her face. He looks at Fury.

“She’s been like that for the past hour. Hasn’t said a damned word.”

Bucky looks back at Annie and he sighs. “Okay. Can I try?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

Fury holds out a hand, “Be my guest.”

* * *

Bucky picks up one of the chairs and carries it over to where Annie is huddled. He glances up at the ceiling and sees the camera there, a single red light glowing steadily; recording everything in high definition and Dolby surround sound.

“Hey Annie,” he greets quietly as he places the chair down beside her. Her head twitches to the side a little but she doesn’t look at him or even acknowledge his presence. Slowly Bucky lowers himself onto his chair. He then leans forward a little, resting his forearms on his thighs, ignoring the sharper pain that dances across his ribs.

“Hey. You wanna look at me?” he requests, still keeping his tone quiet and somewhat light. Friendly almost and after a moment she lifts her head and she looks at him. Bucky gently smiles. “Hi.”

She doesn’t say a word in response, just stares at him with glossy dark brown eyes.

“You want something to drink? Coffee, tea, soda or water?” he asks. She shakes her head. “Okay but let me know if you change your mind.”

“Are you okay?” Annie’s voice is mouse quiet and barely audible in the room. Bucky sits up a little straighter.

“Yeah. It was just a scratch, it’ll heal, won’t even leave a scar.”

“There was so much blood. I’m so sorry I hurt you,” she whispers.

“You didn’t hurt me.” He watches her lower her head again, resting her forehead against her upturned knees.

“I shouldn’t have done what I did.” Her voice is still a little muffled.

“It was an accident. You were scared and you lashed out. You’re worried about your sister. I get that. You’ll do anything for her. You were trying to protect her.” He watches as once more she lifts her head from her knees and she regards him.

“You have sisters?”

“Two.” He doesn’t tell her that they’re no longer around, he’s not sure how much she knows about him.

“And you’d do…anything… to protect them, right?”

“Anything and everything.” He hears the long ragged sigh that escapes from her lungs. She straightens up further, uncurls her legs and places her feet on the floor. Bucky watches as she wipes her eyes. It smears mascara or something beneath them, making her look all the more fragile and vulnerable. He wonders how old she is.

“You said that they made you plant the bug in my arm. Who were you talking about?” Bucky enquires. For the longest moment Annie just stares at him.

“If I tell you, they’ll kill her.”

“Not if we get her out of wherever they’re holding her, first.”

Annie just shakes her head. “You’ll never find her. No one can.”

“You’ve tried?” A nod.

“Why don’t you let us try, huh?” he suggests. “How about you give me a name and let’s see how far we can go from there?” He sees how she stares at him. She so badly wants to trust him. He takes a slow deep breath.

“For years I was made to do what other people wanted. For their own gain. Over and over. In my case, I didn’t know any different. The people who were holding me made sure of it. I just did as I was told because the consequences if I didn’t were much worse than what they wanted me to do in the first place.”

“How…”

“Did it stop? I managed to get away. Then I trusted someone.”

“And they didn’t let you down?”

Bucky shakes his head. “No he didn’t.” He regards her for a moment and he tilts his head to the side.

“The hardest thing a person can do is decide to take a chance and trust someone. I can see that you’re not a bad person Annie. I can see that you’re scared. You’re doing this to save your sister. I understand that, I do. We can help you and her. Right now the tech geeks upstairs are taking both phones apart and I guarantee you they’ll find something that will reveal her destination to them. The moment they do, me and the team will go in and get her out. We’ll get you both somewhere safe where they can’t get at you or her. You just need to take a chance and trust someone.”

Annie stares at him as if transfixed.

“You’ll keep us safe?”

“We will. Will you tell us their name?”

After another long second that feels incredibly stretched out, Annie nods.

* * *

He emerges from interrogation to see both Sam and Corrie in the corridor.

“You waiting for me?” he enquires as he begins to walk. He’s exhausted. His ribcage is really sore now and the bandage feels like it’s wound too tight. They fall into step beside him.

“So, we have a name,” Sam begins.

Bucky huffs out a sigh, “Yeah. No idea who it is though, which isn’t a stretch for me so I’m hoping the people upstairs will have a better idea.”

He then glances at Corrie, who hasn’t spoken.

“I thought you would be hunting down the name Annie gave up. Isn’t that your super-power?”

“Alex French? I’m going to get on to that shortly. You are definitely going to rest up now, right? I can tell that your ribs are hurting.”

“I’m okay, Corrie, please stop fussing,” he sighs.

“Listen to her man, you’re tired, even I can see it,” Sam interrupts and Bucky all but glares at him.

“Does the name mean anything to you?” he asks Corrie, deliberately ignoring Sam and his concern. “Because I remember Fury saying a name was interesting but would only share it if it checked out. Is it the same name?”

“Not at liberty to say right now, Barnes. You’ll be the first to know when I am,” she answers coolly and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“Is it the name you and Fury were investigating earlier?” he perseveres. Corrie doesn’t answer and her expression is carefully blank and it irritates him.

“Right. Need to know basis. I don’t need to know. Message received and understood.”

“Hey now, everyone is just trying to do their jobs here. Why don’t we all just calm down and see where Annie’s information takes us?” Sam suggests. Bucky looks at him again.

“Yeah, why don’t we? Right now, I’m going back to the complex to get something to eat. I skipped breakfast this morning. Let me know when I can be of further assistance, supposing you decide that I need to know.” He heads off without saying goodbye and Sam and Corrie pause and watch him walk away.

* * *

“Damn Corrie, what the hell did you say to him? Apart from that?”

“What makes you think it was something _I_ said?” Corrie answers. Sam notices that she doesn’t deny it outright.

“Because he’s usually a pretty calm dude all things considered. Today? Not so much.”

Corrie sighs and she starts to walk again leaving Sam with no other option but to follow.

“Well he did have a bug in his arm, Sam. Chances are he’s cranky because of that. Or because of the scalpel that sliced him open.”

“Maybe but I’ve seen lack of sleep level of cranky from him and I’ve seen him in moderate pain kind of cranky and this is not that. He is most definitely pissed off kind of cranky. So? You gonna fill me in?” he retorts.

A moment passes before Corrie sighs.

“We may have had a difference of opinion in the medical bay earlier,” she admits.

“About what?”

She stares at him, biting her lower lip contemplatively and Sam rolls his eyes.

“Corrie. About what?” he demands.

“Bucky’s job description. I told him talking to Annie was a bad idea. That it wasn’t part of his job.” She glances at him. Sees how his eyes widen at this piece of information.

“He’s more than just muscle and a top grade sniper, Corrie. Surely you know that by now?”

“If you’re asking whether I read his file, you know that I did. I read yours too.”

“Then you should know that part of his personal mission is to begin to make amends for what he did as the Asset. He wants to make things right. In whatever way he can. Not just this mission. His _personal_ mission.”

“But talking to Annie? Why?”

“God Corrie, you really don’t see it? Because he identifies with what that girl did and why. You watched their interview? You saw what I saw? He was great with her. She opened right up to him and he got the information that we needed. Now you’re keeping potentially important information away from him and why? You still think he’s just the muscle in this operation? Do you really not trust him?”

“I’m still getting to know him, Sam.”

He rolls his eyes at this. “Pardon my language Corrie but that’s bullshit and you know it. It’s been six months. _Six_ months. He’s always had your back as well as mine. He’s never once given you a reason not to trust him, not once, so what’s really going on here?”

Corrie huffs out a sigh and then just shakes her head.

“I don’t know Sam,” she admits.

“You honestly think he’ll betray you, us? For real? I’ll let you into a secret. I didn’t trust him for the longest time. I thought he was nothing but bad news when Steve was looking for him after Project Insight. Then the stuff in Vienna, Bucharest and Berlin happened and I was pretty convinced I was right about him and that Steve was just chasing a memory. Then I got to know him in Wakanda. I got to see more of who Steve remembered, who _he_ knew. Underneath it all, he’s a decent guy. Yeah, a bit fried around the edges but since the battle of Wakanda and the fight at Avengers HQ, he’s a guy I’d want at my back, every single time. Give him a chance, that’s all I ask. Just a chance. He won’t let you down. He hasn’t yet, has he?” He sees the thoughtful expression that crosses her face.

“And if you tell him I said any of that, I’ll deny it, to your face and his,” he tacks on and smiles when Corrie quietly chuckles.

* * *

The complex is blessedly silent. Bucky sighs quietly as he heads to the kitchen area and spends a couple of minutes hunting through the cupboards, searching for something to eat. He finds the makings for a decent sandwich and spends a few more minutes putting one together, throwing in a handful of potato chips as accompaniment. He rescues a can of soda from the fridge and goes to sit at the large table. Before he eats, he pulls his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and finds Katie’s number and calls it.

He’s almost disappointed to get her voicemail.

“Hey kiddo, just me checking in. Hope you’re okay. Call me back if you want to, I still owe you for dinner right? I’d like to take you up on that sometime soon, okay? Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye’. He disconnects, putting his phone on the table beside the plate and he sighs again.

* * *

He turns his head when he hears the gentle tap on his open door and he sees Corrie standing there. This time there’s no beer.

“Can I come in?” she asks. Bucky nods and watches as she does so. Her stride is slow, exhausted and he can see it beneath her eyes and in the paleness of her skin.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” he asks as she slowly lowers herself onto the bed beside him.

“An hour maybe. I’m starting to feel it now though.”

“But you’re done for today, right?”

She just nods. “My brain is pudding. I just want to face plant and sleep the rest of the day away. How about you?”

“I’ve just chilled, caught up with a bunch of stuff. Took that time you recommended I should take.”

“Do you feel better for it?” It’s Bucky’s turn to nod. He then looks away and continues on with the task he’d been undertaking prior to her arrival.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking off the damn bandage.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” she enquires and her eyes widen marginally when he looks back at her. “Quick healing. Understood but I didn’t think it was _that_ quick.”

“It’s annoying me.” He looks back at it and frowns.

“You want me to help?” she asks. Another look her way. “Unless you’re a secret contortionist too?”

Bucky sighs loudly and lowers both hands and his head at the same time.

“Damn it, I knew there was something I’d missed at super soldier school,” he mutters and Corrie smiles. “Sure. I’d appreciate it, thanks,” he answers. “First aid kit is on the book case beside the pictures, should be some scissors in there.” He watches her head over to it and locate it and head back. She sits on his other side as she opens the metal box and sorts through its contents for a second or two before locating the scissors. She looks at him. He sits there, bare chested, seemingly unbothered by the fact that she can see the whole of his metal arm from shoulder to fingertip, including those pink scratch like scars around the shoulder joint.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to apologise,” she begins. She reaches for the bandage that the medic wrapped around his abdomen, slides a finger beneath it and she feels warm smooth skin. She knows that he takes care of himself. Visits the gym daily, works out, keeps the intake of junk food to a minimum and as a result doesn’t carry an inch of fat on his torso. She takes a breath and begins to cut away the bandage. She looks up at him to see him watching her, a somewhat wary expression in his eyes.

“Apologise for what?” he eventually asks, voice husky. She holds his gaze for a second longer before concentrating on the bandage.

“For being an unreasonable bitch this morning and for not giving you the credit and the respect that you deserve.” She takes a slow deep breath as she continues to cut through the bandages.

“You were fantastic with Annie this morning during her interrogation. I should’ve realised that you would find a connection with her. I’m shocked I didn’t realise that myself.” She cuts through the final part and helps him remove the rest of the bandage. She sees what looks like a giant band aid taped across the cut.

“How does it feel?” she asks. He looks down at it.

“Doesn’t even hurt anymore,” he tells her.

“Really?” She watches as he begins to peel away the band aid, “Oh, should you be doing that already?” she asks, worriedly.

“Really and yeah. Look.” He peels the rest of it away and she can see already that the edges have knitted together. It looks like it’s a week old instead of hours old.

“Wow. You weren’t kidding about healing quickly, were you,” she whispers. She goes to touch it but curls her fingers into a fist at the last moment and drops her hand into her lap.

“And I also wanted to let you know that the name Annie gave us isn’t the one on the no need to know just yet list.”

“Will you ever tell me the name on that list?” he asks her. She looks at her for the longest moment.

“One day.”

“One day?”

Her response is just a shrug. He thinks back to the day they met, how she’d looked at him then, how he’d sensed- he doesn’t know what to call it exactly, a connection, an understanding, perhaps? Whatever it was, he can sense it now. She’s looking at him the same way. There’s a reason why she’s not telling him the whole story. He’s almost sure there’s something else going on here but he’s damned if he knows what it is.

“Maybe you should upgrade my security clearance here,” he half teases and waits to see what she’ll say to that, if anything.

“Maybe I should,” she replies. She then pauses and looks down at her hands in her lap, clenched into loose fists before she makes eye contact with him again.

“We’re good now aren’t we Bucky?” she asks.

He holds her gaze for a minute. He wants to say absolutely but something holds him back. For whatever reason, Corrie doesn’t completely trust him and the thought of that after the conversations they’ve shared over the past months, stings a little.

“We’re okay Corrie,” he eventually replies.

She wishes him good night and he watches her leave. She has secrets. He understands that, probably more than anyone here. He has a few of his own. Some he remembers but he still has things that are nothing more than a grey haze in his memory. He knows he’s done a lot of bad things in the past. He wonders about Corrie though. He wonders what it is that she’s hiding because he’s almost certain that she is.


	5. Rescue Mission.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky and Sam locate and rescue Annie's sister. All errors are my own and unintentional. Would, as always, love to hear your thoughts.

**Rescue Mission.**

“Did you find her?” Bucky asks, walking into the conference room.

Corrie stands in front of the wall mounted television screen.

“We found her,” she confirms. She turns and she looks at him. Her smile is one of grim satisfaction.

“That chip has been in your left arm since just before the shopping expedition which turned into a mugging and an unexpected family reunion.” She glances around the room. Only Sam, Bucky and Fury are present. “It has been taken apart and examined and it doesn’t seem to have listening in abilities so whoever is behind this, just wants to know where you are.” She looks back at Bucky once more.

“So it _is_ personal.”

“Yep. Would seem so,” she confirms.

“And that would suggest that Jonathan Kelly is the one behind all of this. He’s the one with the most visible axe to grind.” Sam adds.

“I only came across him once,” Bucky argues.

“That you know of. That we know of. I’m guessing that he wanted a look at you close up. The chip had already been planted by then so perhaps our Mr Kelly wanted to have a closer look at you and report back to this Mister French that Annie told us about and tell him who and what he is up against.” Corrie replies. She then sighs.

“But…I’ve been looking into him and I’m just not finding anything to connect Kelly to this mystery man. Plenty of Alexander French’s as well as just plain Alex French. They’re teachers, accountants, doctors, a couple of cops, you name it. None of them have a connection to Jonathan Kelly or even a Jonathan Rumlow or any version of that name. All of the Alex and Alexander French’s I’m finding are clean, fine upstanding members of society. I’m not finding anything, period. It’s like he doesn’t exist. I’m starting to think that Annie just threw a random name at us to get us off her back.”

“She’s still in our custody so why would she do that? She’d know it was a fake name and wasting our time and that we’d be back,” Bucky responds and Corrie shrugs restlessly.

“I don’t know. I’ve got nothing.”

“And just to be clear, again, we got all the Winter Soldier operatives?” Sam asks.

“We did. Unless new ones we didn’t know about have been activated since then, this guy, if he exists, is a ghost," Fury answers.

"Well so was he til Vienna," Sam reminds him, cocking a thumb Bucky's way. He glances back at him and sees the pensive expression on the other man's face.

“Unless Alex is Alexandra?” Bucky suggests and sees the expression that crosses Corrie’s face. “I mean, we’re just assuming Alex is a guy, what if he’s not?”

“Damn it, why didn’t I think of that? That’s twice I’ve dropped the ball,” Corrie mutters. They watch as she heads into her office, closing the door and heading to her desk. Bucky watches her for a moment before returning his attention to the main screen in the conference room. He sees the picture of a woman who looks barely old enough to drive. He can see the resemblance to Annie; they have the same dark eyes and dark hair, except that Amanda’s hair is shorter.

“Amanda Taylor is twenty one years old and she attends the local community college. It’s just her and her elder sister. Parents are deceased. Annie is twenty five and she’s been working for us since we set up and as you can imagine, Corrie is beating herself up about the fact that she didn’t see any of this happening.” Fury begins. Neither Sam or Bucky comment as they take in the collection of photographs that accompany Amanda’s profile. They’re the usual ones, taken at holidays, hugged up together, smiling for the camera. There are other special occasions; vacations and birthdays as well as selfies and group photos: the bond between the siblings is obvious. Bucky frowns slightly, Annie may be twenty five but she looks a lot younger to him.

“What happened?”

“Amanda was grabbed off the street a week prior to when we think the bug was planted in the arm,” Fury begins and then presses a clicker and the pictures disappear to be replaced by a video. It’s of Amanda, a dishevelled distressed Amanda tear streaked and bruised and sobbing for her sister to do as they say.

“Annie claims that whoever it is that’s behind this made her call Amanda’s college, invent an illness of some kind so no one got suspicious and got law enforcement or anyone else involved.”

Bucky’s frown deepens at Amanda’s distress but he keeps watching, eyes scanning the scene, looking for anything that might give away her location.

“That’s enough,” he tells Fury after the second video draws to a close. “How many of those are there?” he then asks. The image of Amanda Taylor, bruised and tearful freezes on the screen.

“Close to a dozen. They move her around, maybe to stop Annie from using her skills in analysing possible clues to her whereabouts.”

“What I don’t get is, Annie did as she asked them, she planted the bug in his arm, so why did they hang onto her sister? Why not let her go?” Sam asks.

“To keep her quiet. To make sure that she didn’t tell us. Keep her scared. Keep her compliant. They obviously aren’t finished with her,” Bucky answers, his voice low as if he’s talking to himself. He then turns and looks at Sam, “Because she only shared any information with us after a _lot_ of persuasion and promises. You saw how scared she was. She’s convinced they’ll kill Amanda if they realise we know. Still is.” Then he frowns.

“So how did we all of a sudden get a bead on her location?” he asks, looking at Fury.

“Because we have access to better equipment. And they made a mistake. Watch. This is the latest video sent to her phone. It’s two days old.” He depresses the clicker again and both men turn back to the screen.

* * *

She’s in another anonymous room, the wall behind her plain, whitewashed. There are no windows and Bucky can’t hear anything in the background. Amanda is seated on a chair, her arms tied behind her. Her clothes are grubby and ill fitting, hair uncombed, skin dirty. She’s thin, undernourished. He listens to the message she passes on, that Annie must wait for further instructions about another task they want her to undertake and it’s then that Bucky sees the pizza box just visible in the bottom right hand side of the picture. He squints at it.

“What’s that?” he asks.

“Their mistake,” Fury answers and pauses the video and enhances the discarded box.

“BB’s Pizza?” Bucky asks.

“There’s only one in the city. It’s a mom and pop business, not one of these virulent conglomerates that are growing throughout this city like a damned weed,” Fury retorts.

“And you know where it is.” It’s not even a question and Fury nods.

“The street where it’s located is a mixture of business and residential. Low rent places, nothing too fancy or expensive. The city’s still recovering from the events of the Blip but this area was going downhill even before then. High crime, gang controlled, the boys in blue only ever patrol these parts in groups of two or more. We think she’s being held in the apartment block the pizza place is in. A couple of my guys have been checking out the joint today and sent back these- stop me if you guys happen to see any faces you recognise.”

Bucky watches as a variety of covertly taken photographs appear on screen. They’re all the regular breed of scumbag. Jeans, t-shirts and leather jackets, some scrawny, some obvious gym nuts but one guy catches his eye. He looks at Fury in surprise and the older man slowly smiles.

“Yep. Mr Kelly himself,” he announces.

“How old are these pictures?” he asks.

“About a couple of hours old.”

“So he could be there now?”

Fury shrugs. “He could be. You want to hit the place and find out? We don’t know if Amanda is there for sure.”

“Have we shown his photo to Annie?”

“We did. She doesn’t recognise him. Or if she does, she isn’t saying.”

“If he’s there and he’s involved in the plot to bug my arm, Amanda will be there too. We have the advantage in that he doesn’t know that we know about the bug or that it’s been removed. We could hit the place, he’ll be none the wiser because he’ll think I’m still here.”

“Then plan it and set it up,” Fury tells him.

* * *

He can smell pizza; the scents of tomato, cheese, garlic and other ingredients float on the chilly air. The dark coloured SUV pulls into an abandoned parking lot across the way and behind the building the pizza place occupies. Bucky is the first to exit the vehicle and as he waits for Sam to join him, he takes in his surroundings. It’s pitch black with very little street lighting which will allow them both to enter the building as quickly and unobtrusively as possible.

“Smells good. Wanna grab a slice later?” Sam comments as he comes to stand beside him.

“If you’re serious, we can pick something up later from somewhere else,” Bucky answers. It’s deadly quiet and just the faintest of breezes blows.

“If we’re gonna be picking up anything after this job, it’s gonna be something better than pizza,” Sam replies as they begin to walk. Bucky keeps his eyes peeled. So far he can’t hear or see anything but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been seen or heard.

“Bite your tongue,” he mutters back and hears Sam’s quiet snicker in response.

“You both know I can hear you, right?” Corrie’s voice in their ear from the conference room back at the complex.

“We do. Any preferences?” Sam enquires and despite his apprehension, Bucky manages to smile.

“Let’s discuss that once this mission is complete, gentlemen,” she replies. Sam chuckles.

“Copy that. Heading in there now.”

Both of them are wearing dark clothing, Bucky choosing black jeans and a black leather jacket that hides his left arm. Black gloves cover both hands.

‘You ready for this?” Sam enquires, keeping his voice low as they head towards the building.

“Yep,” Bucky responds.

“Stay vigilant and be careful,” the voice in their ear reminds them.

Bucky and Sam have spent the past couple of hours going over schematics: building layouts as well as liaising with the men assigned to watching the outside of the building. According to them there are between six and eight men inside and nobody has gone in or out since their initial report which to Bucky means that Kelly is still inside. Fury’s men are still out there, carefully hidden away and they’re ready to move in on his command.

* * *

Bucky carefully tries the rear door and he glances at Sam as it opens.

“Seriously?” Sam mutters as the pair gain entrance.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” Bucky murmurs, eyes scanning his surroundings, every muscle tensed. He carries a gun down by his right hand side, hidden from immediate view.

“Ditto,” Sam responds just as quietly.

Sam swears that each time he sees Bucky go into work mode, he gets a real sense of how the Winter Soldier used to operate back in the bad old days. Sure he’s had first-hand experience of the brain washed Assassin. He’s felt his hand wrap around his neck lifting him up onto his tiptoes before throwing him across a room as if he was something unimportant, has felt him grab onto a wing of his flight suit and stop him dead in his tracks. He’s witnessed the empty eyed expression on his face but he’s also seen another man gradually emerge from the wreckage that was the Winter Soldier programming. That Steve Rogers felt that he was a man worth saving instead of being stopped at all cost, spoke volumes to him though it had taken him a long while to see and to acknowledge the man that emerged from the abyss. Now they share a friendship, a bond almost. He knows that he busts his chops from time to time but he’s starting to see the man Steve often talked about emerge and after a shaky start, he’s actually starting to like him, something he wouldn’t have even entertained several years ago. He’s still on the quiet side but his instincts are sharp, he’s unquestioningly brave and there’s no other man Sam Wilson would want at his back or by his side. Not that he’d ever tell him that. He tightens his grip on the shield that Steve gave to him and he ignores the sweat that trickles down his back.

There’s a man stationed at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the first floor. Bucky pauses and he observes. He hears the muted buzz of a cell phone and he watches him pull it out of the front pocket of his jeans. As he checks whatever message he’s received, he turns slightly, showing his back to the Winter Soldier. Bucky creeps up behind him and before the man reacts, he wraps his right arm around his throat and tightens his hold. The man drops his phone as he tries to fight back but Bucky’s superior strength quickly overwhelms him and after less than a minute, he’s limp, a dead weight. Slowly and carefully Bucky lays him down, pulling a gun out of the front of his jeans as well as collecting the discarded phone and shoving it into a pocket of his pants. He looks behind him, at Sam.

“We won’t have a lot of time before he comes to and raises the alarm,” he tells him.

“Then we’d better be quick,” Sam answers. Bucky looks up the narrow flight of stairs and nods. He tucks his gun against the base of his spine and holds onto the one he took.

Together they climb the stairs, taking one careful step at a time, listening, alert and ready to react.

* * *

The man appears at the top of the staircase. His eyes widen in shock when he sees them and Bucky sees him drag a gun from behind his back. He freezes for a nanosecond as the man aims the weapon at him. Sam reacts, coming up in front of Bucky, raising the shield to protect them both and they both hear the rattle of gunfire ricochet off the surface.

“Damn it,” Bucky hisses, ducking his head. Their cover has been blown and he knows that they’ll be outnumbered in seconds. He looks up as Sam lowers the shield and he aims and fires. The man goes down.

Sam presses the comm in his ear.

“Breach,” he instructs and hears Corrie’s quiet acknowledgment.

The place is swarming in less than a minute. Their operatives coming out of their hiding places to offer support to both men. Sam and Bucky make their way onto the first floor, fighting against scrawny underfed twitchy as well as over inflated muscles along the way. They take them down one by one.

There’s a row of doors, maybe five in total to Bucky’s left

“You go and check out the rooms, see if she’s there,” Sam tells him as he punches another twitchy minion who goes down in a tangle of arms and legs. “I’ll be okay.”

Bucky opens his mouth, then nods and heads towards the first one. He reaches for the handle and turns it. He steps back against the door frame and begins to slowly push it open, turning away as gunfire peppers the cheap wood, sending splinters flying. He quickly peeks around. There are two men in there but no girl that he can see. He fires three shots, hears bodies hit the ground before he ducks out and heads to the next door. At the top of the corridor a door bursts open. Bucky catches a glimpse of a tall man with dark hair, he aims a weapon and fires. Bucky returns fire and hears a faint grunt of pain as the door to his left begins to open.

It’s been a little while since he’s been involved in one on one physical combat. He grabs the leading arm of the first man, twisting it viciously, hearing the pop of bone and ligament. The man cries out, dropping his weapon and he’s quickly silenced as a single left handed punch takes him down. He collapses at Bucky’s feet like a broken puppet. The second emerges, weapon aimed. He fires but the bullet ricochet’s off Bucky’s left shoulder. Bucky quickly takes care of him, wrapping his left hand around his throat and he lifts him off the ground. He turns and slams him up against the wall hard, dropping him at his feet amidst a shower of cheap plaster. He kicks his dropped weapon away and steps over him and goes inside the second room, weapon raised, eyes alert for more.

* * *

The room is empty.

Well, almost empty.

It’s a plain bare windowless room with white washed walls.

There’s a girl huddled in the corner, on a thin mattress with a couple of equally flimsy looking grubby blankets for company. She’s curled up into a tight ball but Bucky recognises the dark curly hair and the white singlet top. Her legs and feet are bare. She’s painfully thin, dark purple as well as green and yellow bruises blotching her arms and legs, pale skin almost luminous in the artificial light. Her head comes up when she hears him come in and her eyes widen with fear. An old bruise fades into one cheekbone, her bottom lip shows signs of healing too.

“Amanda...” he begins as he sees her begin to open her mouth to scream. She then freezes but she doesn’t answer, her eyes fixing themselves on his gun. Bucky lowers the weapon as he slowly approaches her. He lifts his left hand, palm outwards. “I’m a friend.” He sees the tight bindings around her ankles and the thin bruises that circle both wrists. Her hands have been freed more than likely so she can eat. He scans the room quickly. Carefully he crouches down in front of her and he takes a knife out of the back pocket of his jeans, placing his gun down on the floor beside him but also slightly behind. Out of reach. He doesn’t want her lunging for the weapon in a blind panic.

“Annie sent me. I’m a friend of Annie’s,” he tells her as he cuts through the rope binding her ankles, pulling them away. Amanda doesn’t say anything but continues to stare at him with wide brown eyes. He looks at her and he attempts to smile. At least she’s not trying to scream the place down anymore.

“My name is Bucky. Annie works for our team. She told us what happened to you and we’re here to get you out of here and somewhere safe. Do you trust me?”

“We?” Her voice is croaky.

“My team. That racket you can still hear, that’s my friend, that’s Sam as well as four of our best operatives. C’mon, let’s get you out of here before reinforcements arrive. Do you think you can walk?” He pockets his knife again grabs his gun in his right hand and holds out his left. A moment passes, barely enough time to take a breath before she grabs onto it. He helps her up and sees how she wobbles and he draws her up against his body, his left arm around her shoulders. She’s freezing cold. He feels one of her arms go around his waist and he looks at her.

“We’re gonna move and we’re gonna move quick. Once we’re out of here, I can carry you the rest of the way but right now you’re gonna have to go under your own steam, d’you think you can do that?” he asks and receives a rapid nod in response.

Bucky takes a deep breath. “Okay, good. Let’s go.”

* * *

He keeps his gun in his right hand and down by his side as they make their way to the doorway. No one else has come near and as they approach, it goes silent.

“Sam?” Bucky calls. “You okay?”

There’s a brief but far too long for Bucky silence before Sam answers.

“Yeah. You got her?”

“I got her. Everything okay out there?”

“Yeah but we don’t have long. Someone is bound to have reported this to the cops, we need to get out. What about Kelly? I didn’t see him.” Sam comes into view.

“I think he got out. I saw someone that looked like him earlier but all hell was breaking loose so I’m not completely sure.”

“Son of a….”

“I’ll deal with him later,” Bucky tells him. “Cover my six,” he continues.

“This is Amanda,” he then introduces. Sam smiles at her.

“You look just like your sister. Ready to go?” Amanda nods.

“Then let’s go,” he tells them both.

“Everything okay gentlemen?” Bucky had all but forgotten about the voice in his ear.

“Everything’s fine Corrie. We have her. She’s safe,” he confirms and hears her loud sigh of relief.

“Thank God for that,” she whispers.

“Copy that,” he murmurs in response.

Now they just have to get out of there before back up shows up.

* * *

The four operatives are waiting at the top of the staircase. Two head up the front with Sam and two are behind them. Sam takes the lead as they head down the stairs again, shield in front, eyes vigilant. Amanda clings to Bucky but she can barely stay upright. She tries her best and he keeps a tight hold of her, taking on most of her weight and she clings to him. Once at the bottom of the stairs, Bucky looks down and sees the guy is still there, out cold.

“Damn, what kinda Vulcan Death Grip shit did you pull on him, man?” Sam mutters. Bucky sends him a brief, blank look.

“I don’t know what that means but I need you to hold onto Amanda for a second or two, there’s something I need to do,” he tells her. Sam comes closer to her and holds onto her as Bucky approaches the prone body and quickly presses two fingers against the side of his neck.

“He has a pulse,” he murmurs and then carefully replaces the gun back in the waistband of his pants. He straightens and looks at Sam.

“You mean you didn’t use your own gun before?”

Bucky shakes his head. “Safer that way, in case there’s any blow back, it shouldn’t hit us.” He turns his head, hearing a low growl of a car engine or something. “We need to get outta here, now,” he continues. He reaches for Amanda again.

“Not far to go now,” he tells her

* * *

Bucky hears the squeal of brakes as they exit the rear of the building. He scoops Amanda up into his arms and they hurry to the SUV still waiting in the shadows. As instructed, their backup fade into the night, no doubt to report to Fury directly.

“Get in the back with our girl here, I’ll drive,” Sam tells Bucky. He doesn’t argue, helping Amanda into the back seat. He looks behind him and sees a couple of men running towards them. His eyes widen.

“Go now!” he yells at Sam who doesn’t need to be told twice.

The vehicle pulls away at top speed as he throws himself in. Bucky only just manages to get the door shut in time as the vehicle peels away. He sees how Amanda curls up again, keeping a safe distance between them both.

“Here…” He reaches for a blanket that’s behind the driver’s seat and he unfolds it, helping to wrap it around her. Then he sits back, looking out of the window, hoping that they aren’t being followed as they disappear into the night.

He makes contact with Corrie, letting her know they’re on their way back.

No one is following them.

Amanda doesn’t utter a word during the entire trip back to the complex. She’s huddled up in the blanket Bucky gave to her and she stares out of the window but he can see that she isn’t taking anything in. Right now she’s a million miles away with a million different thoughts and scenarios going through her head.

* * *

Presently the SUV pulls into base as promised. Sam parks up and then turns off the engine. He then looks over his shoulder at the pair in the back seat.

“We’re here. I’ll let Corrie know we’re back.”

“She’ll already know,” Bucky answers and the moment he does, the door to the underground garage opens and the woman in question appears. With her are a couple of medics, one with a wheelchair. Amanda sees it and then she turns to look at Bucky, her eyes going wide again, panic finally beginning to emerge.

“We need to check you over in the med bay. The woman in front is Corrie, you can trust her. She’s also Annie’s boss.”

“Is she your boss?” Amanda’s voice is quiet. Bucky smiles wryly as he and Sam make eye contact.

“One of ‘em. You ready?”

“Where’s Annie?”

“She’s close by. Once you’re in the med bay, we’ll get her for you,” Sam answers. Bucky watches how she looks between them and then she nods.

Corrie approaches the vehicle and pauses by the front bumper as doors open. She sees Bucky emerge from the opposite side and scoot around the back to the rear passenger door which he opens. He reaches in and she sees how he helps the girl out. She clings to him, a blanket wrapped around her body. One of the medics approaches with the wheelchair and Bucky helps her to settle into it. It’s then that Corrie approaches her.

“Miss Taylor, my name is Corrie Harris. I know someone who will be very happy to see you.” She smiles softly at her. She then looks at the medic and nods and Amanda is whisked away. Once they’re alone, she looks at the two men who stand beside the SUV.

“Debrief in about ten minutes?” she suggests. They nod.

* * *

Bucky heads to the med bay before logging off for the night. He’s tired, his muscles ache and a hot shower before bed sounds the most appealing right now but he also wants to check in on Amanda before he does any of that. The debrief session had taken a little while and the phone he’d taken is with the tech geeks being taken apart and interpreted. He hopes there’s some decent information in there. He’s a little disappointed that Jonathan Kelly managed to escape but he’s sure he winged him in the process. Corrie already has feelers out at all nearby emergency medicine departments. She also has an inside person at various police departments too. He shouldn’t be surprised by all of that but somehow he is. She’s a woman of many secrets and she keeps them all closely guarded.

He stands by the door of the med bay. Amanda is in bed. He can see that she’s hooked up to an IV drip of some description and she looks like she’s sleeping. The white singlet top has been replaced by a pale grey sweatshirt that looks like it’s a couple of sizes too big. Annie is sitting by her bedside, watching over her. He waits for her to notice him and she does. A tremulous smile crosses her face as she gets to her feet. Bucky steps into the bay and watches as Annie approaches him.

“Thank you,” she whispers and then she goes to him and wraps her arms around his upper body and she hugs him. It makes him startle and freeze a little. Slowly he puts his arms around her and they stand like that for a minute or two before Annie moves away.

“It’s okay, I was just doing my job,” he answers, keeping his voice low. Annie smiles at him.

“You kept your promise. You said that you’d get her out of there and you did. You got her out of there.” He sees how her eyes fill with tears and spill over. She brushes them away.

“How’s Amanda doing?” he asks, looking to the sleeping girl.

“All things considered, she’s okay. The docs here have cleaned her up, took swabs and gave her something to help her sleep,” Annie replies. Bucky stares at Amanda as Annie talks.

“What happens now?” she then asks and Bucky looks at her.

“I’m not sure. I know Corrie and Fury will want to talk to your sister once she’s up to it. After that, I don’t know.”

* * *

He’s so tired returning to the living quarters, he doesn’t even know if he has the energy to take that shower. He should be thankful that he’ll be able to sleep. It’s been a full on few days.

He heads inside and is surprised to see Corrie in the living area, alone on the couch with a cup of something for company. Probably tea.

“Hey,” he greets as he begins to unzip the hoodie he’d dragged on prior to the debrief. She looks up at him.

“Hey yourself. You look done in.”

“I am,” he confirms, shrugging the hoodie off.

“Well you’ve got a couple of days furlough, you’ve earned them,” she tells him, getting to his feet. She watches as he leaves the hoodie draped over a dining chair. “Want a cup of tea?” she asks. He’s in the process of stretching and flexing tired shoulder muscles.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Same as the last time?” she enquires as she heads to the kitchen.

“That would be great. I’m too tired for coffee anyway,” he sighs out. She glances at him.

“Or you could just forgo the tea and head off to bed. The sun will be up soon.”

She sees him turn to look out of one of the windows and sees the faint purple outline on the horizon.

“I’m not ready to hit the hay yet. Just need to decompress for a little while,” he tells her.

“I can understand that. It’s been a hell of a night. Anything I can help with?”

“Not right now but thanks.” He heads back to the living area and to the couch.

* * *

She makes tea for them both and carries both cups to the living area. Bucky is leaning back on the couch, legs stretched out in front of him, his eyes closed and both hands resting on his stomach. He looks peaceful and for a moment she just regards him.

“Hey,” she murmurs quietly and his eyes open and fix on her. He straightens up and takes one of the cups from her with a quiet thanks. Corrie sits down beside him, tucking one leg beneath her in the process.

“You did a good thing tonight,” she told him after a moment. He takes a sip of his tea and then turns his head and he looks at her.

“Did I?”

“Yeah. You listened to Annie. I was ready to literally throw the book at her for her betrayal but you actually listened to her and her reasons why.”

“She’s a smart kid but she’s no supervillain. She did what she did because she was scared, that’s all.”

“I was so angry with her, though.”

“It’s a natural response. We got Amanda out of that place, she’s safe. We’ll find out what, if anything she knows, over the next few days.”

“This is what you meant wasn’t it, about making amends. Your personal mission.” Bucky looks away from her this time, takes another sip of his tea. It’s not a drink to gulp down he’s realised.

“Yeah,” he confirms.


	6. Revelation (pt.1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrie begins to reveal her secrets.

**Revelation (part 1.)**

A buzzing sound wakes him up. For a second he stares up at the ceiling as he assimilates before he turns his head and he sees his phone on his bedside cabinet. Still buzzing. Dancing and vibrating with the urgency of the incoming call. He reaches for it and sees Katie’s name on the screen. He rolls onto his back again as he answers it.

“Hey Katie,” he murmurs.

“Did I wake you? You sound half asleep.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost noon.”

He blinks in surprise. “Really? Wow.”

“You don’t sleep that late?”

Bucky pulls himself up into a semi reclined position, leaning against the headboard of his bed.

“I don’t. Last night was…crazy…work related.”

Katie doesn’t ask for more information and he’s kind of relieved. “I’m glad you called me back kiddo, how are you doing?” he asks.

“I’m good. Busy. How about you?” He smiles to himself listening to her cheery voice. She sounds happy. He’s glad, he’s been worried about her since what happened at the cemetery.

“Same. Good. Busy but I have a couple of days off and I was wondering about that rain check for dinner? We could go out, my treat?” he suggests.

“Or you could come here, I could cook. We could talk.”

“About what?” Talking in Katie’s case tends to veer a little on the uncomfortable side. For him mostly, she’s curious which is natural but there’s only so much he can remember as well as being allowed to share. Or willing to. The Winter Soldier programming is one example.

“Don’t worry, nothing that would veer into National Security territory or anything like that. I was wondering… look, I’ve been making up some photograph albums for you. It’s been a side project since we first talked. I’ve been making copies of photographs that your mom took as well as of your brother and your sisters and their families over the years, stuff you’ve…missed. I was wondering whether you think you’d be ready to look at them? I mean, there’s no pressure, take some time to think about it and if you’re not then we can postpone.” Her words come out in a bit of a tumbled rush. He has the impression that she’s been rehearsing that little speech. He smiles to himself.

“We can take a look. When were you planning for us to have dinner?”

“Tomorrow? I’d suggest this evening but I have a date.”

“Do you now? And who is the lucky person?” he enquires and he hears her chuckle and he understands now why she sounds so cheery.

“His name is Jack. We met here in the store a few days ago, he was looking for a book by a specific author and we just got to talking. It’s just coffee but he seems nice.”

“Jack, huh? Well in my day, he had to meet the girl’s family first if he wanted to take her out for coffee,” he teases.

“I’m sure you’d be insisting on chaperones too.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s not a bad idea. So, tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” she confirms “Around seven, if that works for you?”

Bucky smiles. “Works out just fine. Need me to bring anything?”

“Just yourself and an empty stomach.”

“I think I can manage that but let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“I will. See you then.”

Bucky feels something warm bloom in his chest at her words. “See you then,” he responds.

* * *

Bucky heads to the gym, his mood uplifted after hearing from Katie. After the incident at the cemetery, he was sure that she would decide put some space between them but she hasn’t and they’re having dinner tomorrow night. The thought of those photo albums scares him slightly but it’s something he has to prepare for. That and the idea of getting to know more members of his family still sounds incredibly daunting. He knows that one day it’ll have to happen and that it really isn’t fair to Katie to expect her to keep the secret of his existence for much longer. He gives his head a shake at all the different thoughts and scenarios bombarding his brain. He’ll think about all of that another time, talk it over with Katie and get her thoughts on it too. Right now he’s craving some time in the gym. Putting his body through stretches, exercises, running on the machine until his legs turn to jelly, he wants it all. When he was on the run in Europe, he liked to run, choosing to pound the streets of the various cities he holed up in the grey pre-dawn hours before the sun rose. He passed the time in his various bolt holes doing push ups, sit ups, anything to keep fit, maintain his already impressive stamina and improve his fitness levels so by the time he encountered Steve again in Bucharest, he was stronger, physically and maybe a little stronger mentally too.

He sees Corrie. She has her back to him and she’s using one of the running machines keeping up a slow steady rhythm. She wears shorts and a cropped top that shows off a wide strip of pale skin. She’s wearing earbuds, her dark red hair tied up in a high topknot which bobs along with her rhythm. He knows what it feels like to be lost in the zone so decides to leave her be. It’s then that he notices the scars that peek out beneath the straps of her top and below the shorter waistline. They look quite thick and old and it piques his interest and makes him think back to when Annie lashed out with the scalpel and how she worried the wound would scar. It’s nothing but an angry looking pink stripe across his skin now, in fact he’s confident that it’ll be completely gone in a day or two.

A while later and Bucky is done. After a quick, hot shower and fresh clothes, he emerges from the gym shower rooms and is surprised to see Corrie. She seems to be waiting for him and she smiles when she sees him.

“Hey,” she greets.

“Hey back,” he replies and sees how she falls into step beside him. “Everything okay?” he asks as they leave the gym and head across the grounds that take them back to the living area of the complex. It’s freezing cold, making his exposed skin tingle. The sky is iron grey in colour and looks heavy with something, maybe rain but probably snow. Corrie has changed out of her gym clothes, wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, her hair is on the damp side and fastened back again, the curls flat.

“Everything’s fine. I didn’t know you were planning on hitting the gym today,” she replies. So she had seen him. He glances at her.

“Was I supposed to ask for permission? I had the time and I was in the mood.”

“No, it’s for everyone…I…” she pauses and shakes her head, “Never mind, it’s not important.”

Bucky pauses and she does likewise and looks at him.

“Are you wanting to know whether I noticed anything different about you?” he asks and sees how her eyes widen slightly.

“Did you?”

“I did and it’s none of my business. If you want to tell me how you got them then you will. You already know how I got mine.”

“Really?”

“Really. It’s not a big deal for me. I don’t like talking about mine either.” He sees how she softly smiles.

“People always want to know when they see them,” she confides as they begin to walk again.

“Well as you should’ve realised by now, I’m not most people. And anyone else, fuck ‘em, none of their business. C’mon, I don’t know about you but working out always makes me hungry. I could do with something to eat. How about you?”

Corrie’s smile widens. “Same.”

* * *

They work side by side preparing a meal for two. The atmosphere between them is lighter, more easy going and after the past few days, Bucky is glad.

“What are you doing with your time off?” Corrie enquires as they carry their plates to the dining table. Bucky glances at her as he takes a seat to her right.

“Paperwork today. Tomorrow I’m going to Katie’s for dinner.”

Corrie smiles. “I’m glad she’s got back in touch with you. What happened at the cemetery was traumatic. A day’s work for you or me but for her…scary.” She picks up her fork and begins to eat.

“Yeah,” Bucky agrees. Corrie looks at him, at the resigned tone of his voice.

“You want her to know more about what you do.” She watches him shrug.

“I just don’t like lying to her, that’s all.”

“You’re not lying to her, Bucky. You’re just not telling her the whole story,” she corrects. There’s a faint frown on his face as he looks at her.

“Maybe but it kinda feels like I am, whichever way you want to dress it up,” he answers.

Corrie sighs and sits back in her seat, replacing her fork on her plate.

“Look, I can talk to Fury, see if we can share a little more with her about what you do but you have to be careful. She said she wanted to start again and get to know you but would she be comfortable with knowing everything about you, including all the nuts and bolts of your Winter Soldier past? She didn’t really like the fact that your phone has a GPS tracker or that you’re armed. That’s nothing compared to the absolute truth,” she reminds him.

Another shrug from Bucky. “I don’t know. I’m so used to being alone that stuff like this, family stuff, I don’t have the first clue how to navigate it. I mean what would you do if you were in the same situation?”

Corrie looks away, stares at her food for a moment. “Your situation is pretty unique, Bucky. I wouldn’t know how to approach it.”

“Just pretend you did.” She glances up at him to see him regarding her with keen interest.

Corrie huffs out a loud sigh and she shakes her head, looks away. “I honestly don’t know. How you’re doing it right now I suppose. A little at a time.”

“You never talk about your family,” Bucky comments.

Startled, she stares at him. “Maybe because it’s nobody’s business?” she stutters out. A faint frown crosses Bucky’s face.

“Okay, but considering that you know a hell of a lot about me and about Sam because you’ve seen our files, we know next to nothing about you except for the fact that you’re British. I know you were in London, that you worked for SHIELD there. I know that you transferred over here just before the Blip. What we don’t know is if you have any family, if you were ever married, what your hopes and dreams for the future are. Hell I don’t even know what your favourite colour, tv show or sports teams are.”

Flummoxed by Bucky’s sudden outburst, Corrie continues to stare at him.

“No to the family, I have no idea and I like blue, crime and medical dramas and I don’t follow sports, satisfied?” She can barely keep the spike out of her tone and she knows Bucky has picked up on it.

“C’mon Corrie, it wasn’t a criticism. I was just stating a fact. You don’t share anything with any of us and yet you know so much about all of us.”

“Because it’s my job to.”

“So it’s back to the need to know and I’m not on that list bullshit again?” He watches her eyes widen.

“I’m just not that interesting, Bucky, plain and simple and while I might know quite a lot about both you and Sam, I sincerely doubt I know _everything_ ,” she answers. Bucky continues to regard her.

“Do you know, your accent gets more pronounced the more pissed off you get? Peggy’s used to too I remember,” he tells her, a slow smile lighting up his face.

“Excuse me? Peggy?”

“Oh I thought you knew… Peggy Carter, who helped create SHIELD. Steve’s great love. She was British too and when she was pissed at you for whatever reason, she’d either wither you with just a look or cut you dead with one word. Sharon’s her great niece.”

“You’re comparing me to Peggy Carter? I’ll take that as a great compliment,” she answers coolly. She watches as Bucky looks away with a slow shake of his head, reaching over to pick up his drink. He takes a slow mouthful and swallows it down.

“Whatever Corrie,” he murmurs and resumes eating his lunch.

* * *

Corrie is in her office and Bucky is in the conference room. He’s working on his paperwork, diligently tapping away on the keyboard of his laptop, pausing now and again to peer at the screen, obviously reading back what he’s typed. When he’s happy with it, he’ll save it, email it across to her and she’ll read it and store it away. She imagines that this kind of paperwork wasn’t in his mind when he decided he wanted to make amends. There’s a lot of it and he does it with little complaint. Unlike Sam, who’s a lot more vocal about paperwork. She quietly sighs. Lunch had ended on a bit of a chilly note between them and she hadn’t meant it to. He had caught her by surprise and by nature that makes her a little bit defensive. She hadn’t realised that it was such an issue with him but she’s now beginning to understand that working together in close proximity means that he’s bound to have some questions about her. They’re friends and friends share information, secrets about each other. Stories. Unconsciously or not, she’s been holding him at arm’s length for reasons unknown to him and he’s a little stung by the fact that she won’t share with him anything personal.

Habit and necessity have made her keep her secrets tied tightly to her soul. Not many people know her whole story. Even less know the truth of it. One person knows everything. One person knows why she’s here in the first place. While it’s true that she’s the eyes and ears of the operation, the fact finder, the information gatherer, there’s a reason why she’s so good at what she does and right now she’s not ready to expand the circle of people who she can trust implicitly. Right now, that club is a party of two, including herself.

She sneaks another look Bucky’s way. Still completely absorbed in his task, he hasn’t looked her way once, that she’s aware of. Sam said to trust him, to give him a chance. He’s right, he hasn’t let her down. He went after Jonathan Kelly without a second thought and got her purse back, whether it was a ruse or not. He’s protected his niece against harm, again without thinking. His bravery is instinctive, in-built but she’s still not ready to take him deeper into her confidence. Not yet. Even after the way he’d rescued Annie’s sister, how he’d committed himself so completely to that task. She’s not quite ready. She doesn’t know what she’s waiting for but she feels that she’ll know the moment when the time is right.

She returns her attention to the mysterious Alex French and runs with Bucky’s idea that Alex is actually Alexandra.

It’s laborious, painstaking work, clicking through the various Alexandra French’s she’s found listed but she works her way through each one, eyes seeking a connection, any connection to Jonathan Kelly or Jonathan Rumlow. Young, old, teenagers and children.

Halfway through the list, she clicks on one of those names and comes across a woman who by her date of birth puts her in her early thirties. She examines her birth certificate and sees that she was born in New York state to a Charlotte and William French. She skims through her early life, she’s an only child and a bright student. She comes across photographs of a tall striking looking girl with high cheekbones and long sleek black hair. Her eyes are a vivid green and they hold Corrie’s attention for a moment or two. Something niggles in her mind, a sixth sense that tells her that for whatever reason, she might finally be on the right track. She deliberately squelches down the feeling fermenting in the pit of her stomach. Not excitement but one of catching the scent of elusive prey. She doesn’t know why but it’s there, on the very edges of her psyche. She wonders if she’s married and she goes hunting for a marriage certificate and she finds one. She married a year before The Blip occurred. Corrie reads the name of the groom and everything inside of her grinds to a halt.

The groom’s name is Patrick Donoghue.

She’s not aware that her hands are shaking as she checks through her social media, such as it is. Before The Blip, everyone was posting their wedding photographs on Twitter, on Instagram or Facebook. Showing off images of a perfect day. Once upon a time, Corrie would look at these photographs and admire them; the dresses, the venues, the cake. She’s got really good at noticing the imperfections, the fakery amidst the fancy.

She finds one. A bride in a wedding gown that looks like it costs more than she makes in a month. A handsome dark haired groom smiling benignly down at his blissful bride, just as perfect in his designer tux. No expense spared, the wedding of their dreams.

Her mouth is dry when she reads the announcement: _Alexandra Elizabeth French and her new husband Patrick Francis Donoghue._

Her eyes go wider as her eyes scan the rest of the photograph. Bridesmaids, six of them all in a row in emerald green silk dresses. It’s the bridesmaid at the end of that line who catches and holds her attention and she stares at her, drinking her in, absorbing her image into her brain. She looks to be about six years old and she’s smiling brightly for the photographer. She’s tall for her age with long arms and legs. Her copper bright hair is brushed shining and sleek over her shoulders.

_Also in attendance is Patrick’s young daughter, six year old Grace Donoghue._

It’s like a knife to her heart and she feels tears swell in her eyes.

“He’s changed your name,” she whispers. “You’re Aurora Grace.”

Her heart is booming in her chest, filling her ears as she scans the six groomsmen in attendance and they stop on one face. A face she’s only seen once in real life but a few more times more recently in photographs.

“And there’s the connection,” she murmurs to herself.

One of the groomsmen is Jonathan Kelly.

* * *

She takes a deep shaky breath and wipes at her eyes as she pushes away from her desk and for a moment she stares up at the ceiling. She then reaches for her cell and types in a number.

“Corrie?” The voice is urgent. “What’s up?”

Despite the turmoil in her head, she makes herself smile. The silence stretches between them before he speaks again.

“You found them.” It isn’t even a question. The smile grows wider, triumphant.

“I found them.”


	7. Revelation (pt.2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrie reveals her secret. 
> 
> TW: mentions of domestic violence.

**Revelation (part. 2.)**

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“One thousand percent. He remarried. Jonathan Kelly was a groomsman at his wedding. He’s hiding behind his new wife’s name. She’s Alex French.”

“That’s why you couldn’t find him.”

“They married just before The Blip happened.”

“The Kelly angle suggests he’s the boss Bucky alluded to. You’re gonna have to clue him in to all of this. Both of them.”

She knows and the thought of that scares her slightly. She’s held onto it for so long now.

“The Kelly connection also means that you have to. There’s no other way around it. You need to tell them all of it.”

“All of it?”

“Every single word. Everything you told me. Trust them. If you’re gonna do what I think you’re gonna do, you’ll need them by your side.”

Corrie huffs out a sigh as she stares at the image on her computer screen. She glances over to where Bucky has been working to see him close his laptop. He glances up at her but his expression is distinctly neutral.

“I need to do a little more research, get my ducks in a row and then I will, I promise.”

“Don’t take too long, Corrie,” the voice on the other end of the line reminds her.

“I won’t,” she answers.

* * *

He looks across and into her office. She’s still at her desk but looks like she’s having a very intense conversation with someone on her cell. He watches for a moment before putting his laptop away and heading out of the conference room.

Bucky heads back to the living complex. The rest of the afternoon and the evening stretch out in front of him. Nothing to do and nowhere to be. Prior to beginning his paperwork, he’d caught up with Annie and Amanda’s casefiles. They’re both still being questioned and after that, they’ll be moved to a safer location until all of this is over with. Kelly is proving to be elusive. He hasn’t been at any of the locations listed as places where he’s lived. He’s effectively disappeared off the face of the earth. They haven’t received any notifications of gunshot injuries from anyone fitting his description. Right now he’s in the wind.

He’s not going to think about him right now. He is going to spend what’s left of his free time chilling out and enjoying the peace and quiet. God only knows the next time he’ll get to.

* * *

Corrie returns to the living complex. She’s exhausted, her eyes are aching and she can feel a headache brewing. She’s spent the rest of the day in her office searching, researching, ferreting out important information. Her heart is thumping, the last of the adrenaline that’s been flooding her system for the past few hours leaking out of her. She knows that she’ll crash soon but she needs to talk to both Bucky and Sam before she does.

Bucky is in the living area, stretched back on the sofa, watching something on the tv screen. At first glance it looks like a documentary. She’s noticed that he seems to like those, the more educational the better. Maybe he’s catching up with what he’s been missing over the past few decades, there’s certainly enough of it. He glances up at her as she walks past and she sees how he frowns at her. Immediately the tv is forgotten as he clicks it off and gets to his feet. He follows her to the dining area, where she places a folder on the table.

“You look exhausted,” he tells her, keeping his voice low. “Want something to drink? Tea perhaps?”

“Do we have any beer left over?” she asks, sitting down at the table and she misses his look of surprise.

“Yeah, we should,” he answers, heading to the fridge.

“Is Sam about?” Corrie wonders, watching as he opens the fridge door and he extracts a couple of bottles.

“He is, in his room.”

“Could you get him for me? We need to talk,” she asks. First of all he pops the caps off both bottles and places one of them in front of her.

“Sure. What’s going on? Did we do something wrong?” he enquires, his tone becoming dubious and she can see that he’s racking his brains trying to think what, if anything, he’s done.

“No, no you’ve done nothing wrong so don’t worry but we all need to have a long overdue conversation. Could you get him for me, please?”

“Okay,” he answers and Corrie watches as he heads to Sam’s door and taps on it. He waits a moment and peeks in. A moment or two later, Sam appears and he’s as perplexed as Bucky about what this conversation could be about. She picks up her beer and for a moment holds it, feeling the chill of the glass beneath her fingertips, gradually becoming slick with condensation.

“Corrie?” Sam enquires as they get closer to her, “Is there something wrong?”

She looks up at them and makes herself smile.

“Take a seat, both of you,” she invites. First of all, Bucky goes back to the fridge and retrieves a third beer bottle, opening it and handing it to Sam as he sits down on Corrie’s right hand side. Bucky takes the seat to her left. Corrie takes a slow deep breath and puts the bottle back down on the table.

“It’s been brought to my attention that while I know both of your files back to front and inside out, you both know very little of mine.”

“Oh hey…Corrie…” Bucky begins somewhat guiltily. She looks at him.

“It’s okay. Believe it or not, you didn’t instigate this show and tell,” she reassures him.

“Show and tell?” Sam enquires.

Corrie doesn’t immediately answer. Instead she stares down at the folder in front of her.

And she takes a very deep breath.

“To begin with, my name _is_ Corrie Harris. That part is true. I’m British and I was recruited to work for SHIELD when I was twenty one years old. Straight out of university. I worked in their London headquarters.” She chances a look at both men and sees that she has their complete attention. She opens the folder and retrieves a copy of the wedding photograph she discovered on social media. She closes the folder again and places it on top.

“Have you heard of a man by the name of Patrick Donoghue?” she enquires and she sees both men shake their heads. Corrie is aware that her hand is shaking very slightly as she points at him in the image.

“That’s him,” she tells them in a quiet voice and sees how they both look at him. “He’s also my ex-husband,” she adds. She doesn’t need to look at them again to feel their shock.

“We were married for five years. The child, the little girl with all of the bridesmaids…”

“She’s your daughter,” Bucky confirms in a soft voice. This time she does look at him.

“How do you know?”

“C’mon…she looks just like you. That hair is a dead giveaway. Same colour.”

Corrie just stares at him and a small smile twitches the corner of her mouth. Then she nods.

“Aurora Grace though he calls her Grace now. To me, she’s Rory.”

“She looks like a Rory,” Bucky tells her and Corrie feels the gratitude bloom inside of her. She then looks back at the photograph again and points at the image of Jonathan Kelly.

“And there’s our elusive Mr Kelly,” she adds.

“You think the boss he alluded to is Donoghue?” Bucky continues and Corrie just nods.

“His second wife is Alexandra French. Alex French. They married just before the Blip.”

“What’s her connection to all of this?” Sam asks. Corrie looks at him.

“There isn’t one that I can find and believe me, I’ve looked. The only satisfactory explanation I can come up with is that he’s using her name to hide behind. After all we thought Alex was male until Bucky suggested otherwise.”

“What happens next?” Sam watches her carefully. She’s so pale she’s almost grey, deep shadows beneath both eyes.

“I keep digging and I’ll find where that bastard is hiding. He has my daughter. When we divorced, I was awarded sole primary custody. He stole her from me when she was four years old and disappeared. I searched for her for two years before the Blip and today I discovered that Donoghue married Ms French prior to it happening. I kept on searching during the intervening years. I don’t know whether Rory is still six or if she’s eleven years old now.” She pauses and takes a deep breath and stares down at the photograph and feels tears burn at the back of her eyes.

“And when I find her, I’m going to bring her back with me.” She wipes at her face.

“And we’ll help you when you’re ready, if you want us to,” Bucky tells her “but right now you’re just about dead on your feet and you need some sleep. You’re gonna be no good to your daughter otherwise,” he continues.

* * *

He struggles to the surface of the nightmare and opens his eyes on a gasp as he breaks through. A few determined tentacles of it cling to him as he remains frozen in his bed, heart hammering in his chest, a cold sweat drenching his skin. It takes a moment or two for his brain to remind his lungs to function again, to allow him to take a breath and then another. He feels the adrenaline that had begun to surge through him begin to dissipate and he waits for the rest of his body to follow, for his heartbeat to return to normal. Slowly he sits up. His room is swathed in dark shadows and as always he peers into them. Rationally he knows there’s nothing there but he looks anyway. He swivels around and shuffles forward so that he’s sitting on the side of his bed. He feels the chill of the flooring beneath his feet and a moment passes before he stands up. Slowly he walks to the window in his room, a floor to ceiling affair that gives him a view of the grounds of the complex. Snow is falling. He watches it for a little while. It had been forecast for a day or two and right on schedule here it is. He looks up to the sky which is a smudgy ash grey colour. It’s probably going to snow for the rest of the night. The clock on his bedside cabinet announces that it’s just past three a.m. He’s had about two hours sleep.

He’s deliberately quiet as he exits his room and he startles a little when he sees Corrie sitting in the living area, a single lamp her own company. He remains still and watches as she looks over her shoulder at him and then looks back and into nothing. Bucky takes a slow deep breath, wondering what to do now. Does he go sit with her, does he leave her be? There’s been a time or two in the past when she’s done that for him, sat with him, the last time wasn’t all that long ago, when she introduced him to tea. He heads towards her and without invitation, goes to sit on the couch beside her.

“I thought you’d be asleep.”

“I tried.” Her voice is low. His eyes take her in, she’s wearing pyjamas and a robe, her hair curling over her shoulders. “But I couldn’t. What’s your excuse?”

“Nightmare.”

“At least you didn’t choose to go walkabout this time.”

“True,” he concedes. He watches her for a moment, “You’re thinking about Rory.”

She looks at him and she nods.

“I’m wondering whether she thinks of me, if he’s told her I’m dead.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because it’s the simplest method to stop any awkward questions and plus, one time he almost succeeded in killing me.”

Bucky’s eyes widen slightly in shock at that revelation.

“He beat you?”

Corrie just nods. For a long moment she doesn’t speak and then eventually she takes a deep, shaky breath.

“I met him not long after leaving Uni. My mother had just died and she was all I had in the world so I was all over the place emotionally. Vulnerable. He was older, wealthy, confident. Protective. And I fell hard and fast.” She frowns and gives her head a shake.

“I was just a kid really. Ripe for the picking and I didn’t see him coming. He completely bowled me over. We were married within three months of meeting and I thought he was the answer to all of my prayers.”

Bucky doesn’t say anything, figuring she isn’t in the mood for conversation.

“Everything was so perfect at first or so I thought but it didn’t take long before he started to change. He was subtle at first. Sly comments. How I looked, what I wore. Who I spoke to and he was so careful. If I said anything in response, tried to defend myself, he’d say he was only joking, that he didn’t mean it and that I should learn not to be so thin skinned. Then it started to get a little more…physical.”

“You worked for SHIELD then?”

Another nod. “I think he felt a little threatened by them and that I worked for them and that I was so good at my job. As I said before, I was recruited almost straight out of Uni. I was working my way up through the ranks, proving my worth. Getting noticed by important people. He didn’t really like that I was getting attention because it always had to be about him. So he liked to give me a little slap now and again to remind me not to get too full of myself.” She stares into space.

“What did he do for a living?” Bucky enquires.

“Worked for his mother. Her name was Annette Donoghue and she ruled that family with a fist of iron. She didn’t much care for me but doted on her only grandchild so I was tolerated. She passed away when Rory was two and Patrick stepped in, took over. Import and export business.” She gives her head another shake and frowns a little more. “He was the one who decided we should have a baby, well actually it was his mother who wanted to be a grandmother. I wanted to wait a little while longer but Annette decreed it was time so he sabotaged my birth control and before I knew it, Rory was on the way.” She smiles very slightly. “She was so beautiful. My red hair, my green eyes. I was smitten but at the same time I felt so trapped. Despite how she came into the world, I never regretted having her but at the same time I didn’t want my life to become hers too. He had me exactly where he wanted me. They both did. They didn’t want me to go back to work, told me I didn’t need to now I had the baby but I was determined to go back, so I fought for it. I wanted that tiny piece of independence. It wasn’t easy but I did it.”

“Good for you,” Bucky murmurs.

Her eyes briefly flicker over his face before looking away again.

“My battle for that little piece of independence had consequences though. He became bolder in his assaults. Punches. Slaps. Backhands. I got very good at using make up to hide the bruises and I became an exceptional liar. I learned not to show that I was in pain and that used to piss him off. It used to make him so angry when I wouldn’t cry. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t.” She stops again and she bites her lip.

“To begin with, the bruises were always under my clothing. Nowhere visible. Once or twice I tried to fight back but when I did, he got worse. It was like I gave him permission to knock me around even more. He even knocked me out a couple of times. After Rory was born, I didn’t. She needed me so I didn’t fight back even though he wanted me to.”

Bucky watches her. He wants so much to touch her, take her hand or even hug her or something but he doesn’t. He stays still and he waits for her to continue, which she does.

“So he’d grind me down. He often told me I was useless, as a wife; as a lover and mother and just as a human being in general. He told me that I’d never be anyone without him, would never be any good and over time, even though intellectually I _knew_ all of that was complete bullshit, the reality was that he wore me down, he made me _believe_ everything he said. He told me that I was his, only his and that I could never leave him. If I tried, he’d find me and when he did, I would regret it. He said he had powerful people in his pocket, nobody would believe me if I went to the police. It got to a point that he had me so nervous that I’d jump at my own shadow and question every decision.” Another pause. Bucky watches her. She seems so fragile, being held together by memories.

“What happened? What changed?” he asks, keeping his voice deliberately quiet. Corrie looks at him. Her eyes are huge, her fingers entwined together on her lap, the knuckles white with tension.

“Annette died suddenly. It was a heart attack and I knew _then_ that I had to get out. I had to be brave. I had to at least _try_ to escape because I didn’t want Rory to grow up in that atmosphere and to witness what was happening to me or God forbid for him to turn on her the moment she did something to upset him. I just knew that we had to leave. She was three, almost four at the time and such a bundle of energy and light. I needed to get out but he’d messed with my head so badly that I didn’t know how to or who to turn to. I didn’t want to burden anyone with my problems, I believed that no one would believe me or want to get involved. Turns out I was wrong. ”

“Someone helped you.”

“Someone did. He saw. He saw… _everything_ and he helped. He wasn’t afraid of Patrick. Said he’d come up against worse fools than him and survived. He got us out of that situation. He got us somewhere safe. I think I had two suitcases, one with clothes for Rory and myself and the other had the barest of essentials and some of her soft toys. He helped me get a good lawyer, get a restraining order, file for divorce, go for sole custody.”

“Who…oh…” Suddenly it becomes clear to Bucky who. “Nick Fury.”

Corrie slowly nods. “Yeah. Nick Fury. He saved my life.” She pauses again and Bucky gets the impression she’s making a decision about what to share next.

“He saved me twice because the day my divorce was finalised, along with me getting the promised sole primary custody of Rory, Donoghue broke into my apartment. He beat me, he beat me badly and he took Rory from me and as he did, he told me I’d never find them, that all of what happened to me was my fault, that I could’ve prevented it if I’d just done as I was told.” She pauses and her frown deepens and Bucky can see that she’s lost in those memories. “He left me in a pool of blood. Fury got…I don’t know what you’d call it…a sixth sense maybe? Because he showed up at my flat and found me, called an ambulance, stayed with me at the hospital. Never left my side. It was touch and go for a little while. Doctors later said, another half an hour and I probably wouldn’t have survived.”

For a moment neither of them speak. To be honest, Bucky doesn’t think he can find the words. He just knows that right now he wants to go out there, find Donoghue and rip him limb from limb. His attention is diverted as Corrie takes another shaky breath and takes something out of the pocket of her robe. It’s a cell phone.

“I want to show you something,” she tells him and Bucky watches as she goes into one of the various apps and pulls up some photos. She moves closer to him and turns the screen his way.

“This was me when I worked in London,” she tells him, her voice quiet, emotionless and he looks down at a younger version of the woman who currently sits beside him but she looks a little different. Her face is a little fuller, her nose is a little bigger and there’s a twinkle in her eyes that he hasn’t seen before. She’s wearing a smart suit, a lanyard of some description around her neck and she’s full of quiet confidence.

She turns the screen back around to face her and he watches how she swipes through a few more pictures before turning the screen back around. “This was me just before I left him.”

Bucky looks down and his eyes widen marginally. Her face is thinner, cheekbones more pronounced and her eyes are dull. She’s smiling, holding her little girl up close to her but the twinkle has gone, replaced by a sense of hopeless inevitability of her situation. Corrie turns the screen away again.

“And this is after.” This time she gives him the phone and he looks down.

“Oh my God,” Bucky murmurs, truly shocked.

* * *

Corrie’s face is swollen to twice its usual size. Her nose is broken, both eyes are purple black and swollen shut. Her skin is a mess of bruises, grazes and contusions.

“Swipe through, there are more,” she all but whispers and he does so. They’re a variety of pictures taken from her hospital bed. He sees the swelling going down, the bruises changing colour but they’re no less horrific.

“Shattered eye socket, broken nose, broken cheekbone, knocked some teeth out. I needed reconstructive surgery. Like I said, he almost killed me. If not for Nick, he would have.” Bucky lifts his head and he just looks at her, shocked beyond words but he can feel the anger still bubbling under. He hands the phone back to her and she switches it off and pockets it again.

“I’m so sorry you went through that,” he murmurs.

“It took me months to get over it, or at least be able to live with what happened. I needed all sorts of therapy, physical as well as emotional and there were times when I thought I’d never get through it or past it but I did my very best to.” She looks at him then. “I guess you can relate to some of that.”

Bucky just nods. “Yeah,” he agrees.

“You’re a survivor,” he tells her and she shrugs one shoulder.

“So are you.”

“Not like you are.”

“But what you went through was no less horrible.”

“Maybe but this isn’t a competition.” He takes a deep breath. “How many people know about what happened to you?” he asks.

“Fury and now you. No one else.”

“I’m glad you told me. I’m glad you trusted me enough to share it with me, I know it wasn’t easy.” His voice is quiet, sincere.

“You can fill Sam in on it if you want. I don’t think I can go through it all again.” He can hear the exhaustion in her voice.

“You’ve held onto all of this for so long. It’s hard to let go of it, to finally tell your story, never mind tell it again. It’s exhausting enough the first time.”

Corrie looks at him. “You know.”

He shrugs. “Yeah. I do. I didn’t want to talk about what happened to me, what I’d done. It wasn’t til I got to Wakanda that I felt able to.” A brief silence drops between them, “You’re sure you’re okay with me telling Sam?”

She looks at him then. “No more secrets Bucky. I’m getting very tired of them.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to him.” He then reaches across and places his left hand gently on her shoulder, giving it a gentle comforting squeeze. They make eye contact again.

“We need to work on a plan to locate Rory and to get her out of there and when we do, we’ll go and get her. Whatever you need us to do, we’ll do it. And if I can punch Donoghue in the face as we do it, even better.”

That gets the faintest of smiles out of her.

“Can I ask a question?” he asks.

“Sure.”

“After what happened…happened, did you get the police involved?”

“Yeah. They couldn’t find him. As far as I’m aware they’re still searching. Fury has also been searching and his methods are a little more… unorthodox. There’s been a couple of times when we thought we had a lead but they inevitably faded into nothing. Patrick told me I’d never find him or Rory and until today that was true, I haven’t been able to. If you haven’t guessed already, his was the name we were looking into as being linked to what happened to us the first time we encountered Kelly but we couldn’t find the connection.”

“Until Annie mentioned an Alex French.”

Corrie nods. “Exactly. She provided the answer to the puzzle whether she realises it or not.”

“Does Donoghue know you’re here in the US?”

“Probably. Whether he heard a rumour or one of his many spies discovered my existence on this side of the Atlantic, I’m not entirely sure. Maybe he’s had people watching me, they saw us together somewhere, reported back and perhaps he thinks claiming you back as the Asset will be an added bonus. Perhaps he has a boss he’s trying to impress and I’m sure whoever his boss is, they’ll be mightily impressed by the recapture of the famed Winter Soldier.”

“They have to get me first,” Bucky mutters.

“Plus you’re not that person anymore,” Corrie reminds him.

He holds her gaze for what feels like a long moment “Neither are you. Donoghue may know that you’re Stateside. He might think you’re still that girl in London, perhaps he thinks because he hurt you he can do it again but he’s going to be wrong because you’re none of those. Not anymore. And this time you have us by your side and I’m not gonna let him hurt you again.”

Corrie looks up at him with wide eyes. “ _You_ won’t?”

“I know that you’re strong and you’re the bravest person I know but in my day a man didn’t put his hands on a woman like that, _period_. It doesn’t make him a man, just the goddamn opposite so pardon me if I’m stepping over a boundary or a line but I’m pissed off. I’m sure you want to kick him in the balls, to put it politely but I’m gonna punch him in the face while you do it.”

For the first time that day he sees her grin. She leans against him for just a minute and then quietly chuckles.

“I might just let you,” she murmurs. Bucky smiles in response, sliding an arm across her shoulders and he hugs her to him for just a moment.


	8. A Moment of Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Bucky have a conversation. Later on, Corrie asks a favour of Bucky and in the process reveals a little more of herself. All errors are my own and unintentional. Would love to hear your thoughts.

**A Moment of Doubt.**

“You and I need to talk.”

Sam stares at Bucky for a long moment as he pours himself a cup of coffee.

“About what?” he enquires, his voice becoming wary. Bucky takes a mouthful of his own before he answers. He needs the caffeine boost, he didn’t get much sleep after Corrie’s revelations last night and as a result he feels a little crispy around the edges this morning.

“Corrie.”

* * *

He watches Sam’s expression change as he shares with him what Corrie told him, sees the brief shock as well as a deeper anger bloom in his eyes.

“You got any thoughts?” Bucky asks once he’s finished.

“Apart from wanting to beat the everlasting _shit_ out of him if and when I get my hands on him? Not right now, no but that doesn’t mean that I won’t.”

“Apart from that, yeah.”

Sam shrugs. “I can imagine Corrie is hot on the trail of her deadbeat ex and devising an extraction plan. We’re helping her with that, right?”

Bucky nods. “I get the feeling she’s been watching us since we first started all of this, seeing if we’d be up to the task if and when she found her daughter.”

“I think rescuing Amanda Taylor was a good audition,” Sam murmurs and Bucky nods again.

“It makes me wonder why she took this job in the first place though. You’d think, after what she went through, she wouldn’t trust a guy again, no matter who he was,” he wonders. He did sense a kind of reservation with her at times and definitely to begin with but as the months have gone by, it seemed to have melted away into some kind of friendship.

“Well she trusts Fury and she’s read our files. He would’ve talked about us to her, Cap would’ve also. Maybe it was because of him, he vouched for you to Fury at Stark’s memorial, you can’t get better than a recommendation from Captain America himself.”

“Maybe,” Bucky demurs.

“You’re _not_ that guy anymore. We all know that and Corrie for sure knows that now.”

“Well she didn’t know _that_ guy at all.”

“She would’ve seen the tapes as well as read your file.”

“God, how many people have seen those?” Bucky sighs out.

“I’d hazard a guess and say pretty much everyone still employed by SHIELD and connected subsidiaries.” Sam sees how Bucky rolls his eyes at that.

“Be glad those tapes exist because we now know what happened to you, what HYDRA did to you and why. If they didn’t, if we hadn’t, who knows what you’d be doing right now,” Sam reminds him.

“I’d either be dead or sitting in a cell in a Super Max prison doing life without parole, definitely would be if Ross got his way,” Bucky murmurs darkly.

“You still think that should’ve been your punishment?” Sam enquires, his voice quiet. The look Bucky sends him is bleak. Of course he does and it’s Sam’s turn to roll his eyes.

“I thought we’d talked about that? I thought you understood? _Nobody_ holds you responsible for any of that. No court of law would, could or should convict you on it.”

“So you’re telling me I should just get over it?” Bucky demands sharply.

“What kind of fool do you take me for?” Sam retorts, clearly offended. “Of course I’m not. That’s between you and whatever deity you choose to believe in. I’m _saying_ you should begin to forgive yourself. Didn’t anything I said to you before this job sink in?”

Bucky doesn’t respond but Sam isn’t fooled.

“I do hold myself responsible for it, Sam. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, I still did it. I did all of what they say I did and it’s something I will never forgive myself for.” Bucky’s voice is quiet. Sam just regards him for a single long moment.

“I’ll say this one more time just to be clear. You were tortured and you were brainwashed. You didn’t have a choice in the matter.” His voice is level, controlled. “Because you have proved yourself over and over since those dark days. To Steve, to me, to Corrie and to Fury. I know Steve offered you the Shield first and you turned it down and that you recommended me for the job. You turned it down because you think you aren’t worthy of the task but you will be. One day.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. One day at a time, Barnes, one foot in front of the other and you can start by being a little less harsh on yourself.”

“And if any of us thought you were still that guy, you wouldn’t be here because none of us would’ve come within six feet of you,” another voice adds and Bucky spins around and sees Corrie standing there, a half smile on her face.

“How much of that did you hear?” Bucky demands. Corrie shrugs as she slowly walks towards them both.

“I won’t lie. Pretty much all of it.” Her eyes move to Sam.

“Are you okay?” Sam asks. For a long moment both he and Bucky think she isn’t going to respond but eventually she nods.

“I am and I’m going to be even better once I get my daughter back. It’s okay that you know, I wanted you to know but I couldn’t face going through the tale again so Bucky offered to do it instead so he’s not breaking any confidences.” This time she looks at Bucky and holds his gaze for a long moment.

“Thank you for listening to me last night. I really appreciated it.”

Bucky inclines his head. “Anytime,” he replies. 

And he means it.

* * *

It helps that Bucky pretends that the punching bag is Patrick Donoghue.

After listening to Corrie spill her guts, he retreated to his room and spent the rest of the night in some kind of research mode, hunting down any information he could find on the man who had hurt her and taken her kid away from her. He wanted to get the measure of a man who would do such a thing. He’s the main reason why he’s feeling extra crispy around the edges today, that he wishes it was wasn’t a punching bag he’s currently fighting against. That he was in front of him, to vent the anger that brews inside of him every time he remembers those pictures Corrie showed him on her phone. Instead he takes it out on the punching bag.

He’s alone in the gym this time. He works steadily, pounding the bag, working up a sweat but being careful not to burst it open with his left arm. He’s damaged a couple doing that so now he tries to be careful but it’s difficult to reign it in.

Corrie enters the gym in time to see the punch bag fly of its hook and hit the floor and roll away. Bucky stays where he is, glaring at it, breathing heavily. She guesses he’s been at it for a little while judging by the sweat that gleams on his skin, the way his hair sticks to his forehead and to the back of his neck. He then huffs out a sigh, shoulders slumping a little and he heads towards the damaged punchbag. Corrie follows him and he lifts his head and sees her approach as he leans down to pick up the chain.

“How many is that now?” she enquires.

Bucky glances down at the dormant bag. “Three. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. We have replacements.” She watches as he begins to haul it away.

“At this rate, you might not for much longer,” he warns her.

Judging by the split in the leather, he might be right.

* * *

She watches as he hooks a new bag up.

“Can I ask you something?” she begins and he glances at her and gives her a restless kind of shrug.

“Sure, I guess…”

“I’d like to ask a favour of you.” This time the look Bucky sends her is a little more wary.

“Okay…” He stretches the word out as he begins to unfasten the tape around his right hand. He’s obviously decided against potentially obliterating another punchbag today.

“When I first came to America, I wanted to know how to protect myself.” She glances at him to see his eyes on her face as he continues to slowly and methodically unwind the tape.

“And did you?”

“Some. Natasha taught me some moves, some tricks but it’s been a little while and I’d like…if you’re willing…to have a refresh and perhaps, learn some more?” The nerves are squirming a little in the pit of her stomach as she watches how he absorbs her request.

“Well from what I’ve heard and vaguely remember, Natasha was the best.”

“What you _vaguely_ remember?” 

A half smile drifts across his face. “I thought you’d read my file? In Berlin? Natasha was one of those who tried to take me down, along with Sharon. Punched me in the nuts I seem to remember…somewhat …vaguely,” he reminisces with a slight tilt of his head.

“And that didn’t work?” Corrie’s eyes go wide. Being punched in the nuts by Natasha Romanoff should’ve brought him to his knees and kept him there. Bucky shakes his head.

“No. I was triggered at the time. It rocked me back a couple of steps but I had to be knocked upside the head, lights out for the trigger sequence to be broken at the time.” He finishes unwinding the tape and he looks at her square in the eye.

“Question. Why ask me? Why not Sharon or even Maria?”

Corrie takes a slow deep breath and ignores the spike in her heart rate.

“Because I need to practice against someone bigger than me. Someone stronger. A guy.”

“And you chose me.”

“Hey, you don’t have to. I can just as easily ask Sam.” She begins to turn.

“No. Wait.” Without thinking he reaches out and grabs her wrist, quickly letting go as she turns her head and she looks at him. “Sorry.” He gives his head a shake, “I was just taken a little by surprise, that’s all. Sure. I’m happy to help out. Want to start now?”

Corrie nods.

“Okay,” Bucky murmurs and he drops the tape on the floor beside the punchbag and follows her to the mats.

He watches her warm up as he stretches. He can sense her trepidation from where he’s standing. Eventually she’s ready and she stands across from him, just out of arm’s reach.

“One thing, before we get started,” Bucky begins and he sees her brief look of puzzlement.

He bites back a smile. “Just don’t punch me in the nuts.” 

He grins as she begins to laugh.

* * *

He bends at the waist and pulls much needed oxygen into his lungs and looks up at Corrie who stands nearby, doing the same thing.

“I thought you said you needed a…refresh?” he wheezes and sees how she looks at him.

“I do. I haven’t trained like this since before…” She waves her hand around and he understands. _Before all of this began._

“Natasha trained you well.”

“You were pulling your punches though.”

Bucky straightens up but doesn’t answer, doesn’t confirm or deny her claim.

“You’re not denying it.” Slowly Corrie straightens up too.

“You don’t want me coming at you, Corrie.”

“Why not? It’d be the perfect use of what Natasha taught me if you did.”

“The difference being, Natasha had years of training and experience. _Years_. She could and did handle me. You couldn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“You saw my tapes. You tell me. You held your own just now but trust me, you don’t want me in Winter Soldier mode.” He sees her wide eyed expression. “You want to be able to protect yourself against Donoghue. I get that and if you defend yourself against him like you did with me, you’ll be fine.”

“What if I’m not?” He sees the naked fear in her eyes, the faint tremble in her body.

He wants to hold her, reassure her but he holds himself still. She won’t welcome it.

“You are. I’m happy to keep training with you if you want me to but what I won’t do is unleash the Soldier onto you so don’t ask me again.” He licks his lips.

“From experience, men like your ex are cowards. Like I said last night, he thinks that you’re weak and that’s going to be his big mistake because you’re anything but. That’s going to be your strength. He doesn’t know you now and you’re sure as hell not that girl he used to push around and beat. If there’s a time when you have to face him alone then you will defeat him. I have no doubt about that. You wouldn’t have gone through all of this not to.” 

“He still scares me,” she admits in a tiny voice and this time he does go to her, does draw her into his arms and he does hold her. She remains perfectly still, resting her head against his shoulder. He wraps his arms around her.

“Of course he does. What he did to you, of course he does but you’ll overcome and you will prevail and you’ll get Rory back.”

“What if she thinks I’m dead. What if she doesn’t want to come with me?”

Bucky draws her away from him and he looks into her eyes.

“And what if she doesn’t? What if she’s just waiting for you to come and get her? You’re gonna locate her and Sam and I are gonna go and get her for you.” He hears her take a slow deep breath. She shakes her head.

“No. The day I find her, I’m coming in with you.”

* * *

A hot shower. He leans forward, bracing one hand against the tiled wall and feels the pound of the hot water between his shoulder blades, hitting that sweet spot just below the base of his neck. When the water hits that spot, he feels his muscles relax, a warmth rush through him. He then lifts his head and the water hits his face instead. He has his dinner date with Katie soon and he will admit to being more nervous than usual. This is their first meeting since the events at the cemetery and he’s sure that she’ll have more questions. At least they’re talking though so he’s glad she’s keeping that option open. He likes talking to her.

And then there are the photo albums she’s said she’s made for him. Of the rest of the Barnes clan. And it’s bound to contain pictures of his parents as well as his brother and sisters. He’s not sure whether he’s completely ready to look at them but at the same time there’s a need inside of him to see them, to know. He needs to know that they got on with their lives after he was reported missing, killed in action. He knows that they have, he’s seen their gravestones proclaiming them to be parents, grandparents and even great grandparents but he just needs to know what happened next. He wants to hear about their lives, the funny stories to go with the sad ones. He remembers the closeness of his parents and his siblings. He wants to know if that continued.

* * *

The snow is thick beneath his boots as he heads to the book store. It’s freezing cold and the sky looks heavy with the promise of more snow. He huddles up in his jacket, hood pulled up, hands pushed deep into the pockets. The streets are deserted, people choosing to remain indoors. He doesn’t blame them.

Katie’s storefront appears in front of him and the windows are dark. He knows she will have closed up early for this evening and that the door will be locked. Instead he heads to the door that leads to her apartment and he rings the bell. He waits for her to answer, to buzz him up. After a moment it does and the door clicks open and he goes inside and heads up the single flight of stairs.

He listens as he climbs upwards. Usually he hears the sounds of occupation: the muted sounds of a radio playing, footsteps, even just her voice but there’s just silence and for whatever reason, it feels odd, off. The last time he was here, she was waiting for him at the top of the stairs. She’s not there now.

“Katie?” he calls out and he listens intently. There’s no reply. Not a sound. Maybe she’s had an accident?

Or maybe…

Slowly he moves his hand beneath the back of his jacket, to the waistband of his jeans and he carefully extracts his gun, holding it firmly in his right hand.

He controls his breathing as he makes his way the rest of the way up, each footstep slow and deliberate. He contemplates calling Corrie or Sam but what if it’s a case of she’s busy right now and doesn’t have time to meet him at the top of the stairs? It would be embarrassing if the cavalry arrived and she was just in the bathroom.

The door is unlocked and it gives a slow quiet squeak as he carefully pushes it open. He slips inside, pauses and listens. He can’t hear anything.

He enters the kitchen in slow measured steps, his weapon down by his side, his heart doing a slow deep pound, every single sense on alert.

And then he sees Katie lying on the floor.

* * *

He feels his heart stop in his chest, his eyes go wide in horror.

“Katie?”

She doesn’t respond. He makes his way to her side, checking doorways and potential hiding places as he does. There’s no one else here. He gets to her and drops to his knees beside her prone figure.

“No no no…” he mutters, his heart beginning to gallop.

“Be okay, please be okay…” he whispers to himself as he touches her. She’s still warm. He sees the bruises and the swelling; her face and neck. There’s a graze at her temple too. She’s been beaten, throttled and fear pushes forward.

“Shit,” he mutters, feeling for a pulse. Almost sags with relief when he feels a slow sluggish one against his fingertips. He reaches for his phone, intending to call for help. As he does, he hears the quiet creak of the floorboard behind him and he pauses for a millisecond before turning. His eyes widen when he sees Jonathan Kelly creeping towards him, a weapon in one hand. Bucky lunges up to his feet, using the momentum to power forward. His left hand is in a fist and he punches into Kelly’s right shoulder. Kelly’s eyes go wide and he gasps and drops the gun. Bucky’s expression is grim. That bullet wound will still hurt like a son of a bitch. He lifts his right hand as Kelly staggers back, clutching his wounded shoulder and he aims his gun at the centre of his forehead.

“She’s just a kid. If you wanted me, you should’ve just come for me,” Bucky tells him.

“And where’s the fun in that? I want you to know what it’s like to lose someone who means everything to you,” Kelly responds, wheezing from the physical pain he’s still feeling.

Bucky takes in his pallor, the sweat that’s appeared on his forehead. “You don’t know me very well, do you?”

“Maybe not but I do know you have a whole family here, nephews, nieces, cousins they’re all over the walls. Including you.” He indicates the framed photos on the wall in Katie’s living room.

“They’re irrelevant to this.” Then something occurs to Bucky, “God, you’re Jack aren’t you? The guy who had a coffee date with Katie. Damn it.”

Jonathan grins with pride. “It was embarrassingly easy to do. I saw you come into the store after our encounter. Saw you leave too, looking like you saw a ghost. Did some homework. Buchanan Books, a family business, owned by one Katherine Louise Barnes. Had to be a connection somewhere to the famed James Buchanan Barnes. So I introduced myself to her, made out I was looking for a particular book and she was so eager to help, so accommodating.” He mocks, “Does she know about your Winter Soldier past?”

Bucky doesn’t reply. Instead he lifts the gun slightly higher, bracing his shoulders. Ready.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet between your eyes,” he whispers instead and his finger tightens on the trigger. His head twitches to the side when something or someone moves at his right. As he does so, he feels pain explode in his head and then nothing.


	9. The Missing Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I may have taken inspiration from thee 80's buddy cop movie 'Lethal Weapon' for a certain scene in this chapter. 
> 
> All errors are my own and unintentional. Thoughts appreciated.

**The Missing Soldier.**

A phone is ringing. Corrie frowns, still lost within the content of her computer screen. Finally it occurs to her that it’s actually _her_ phone that’s ringing and she reaches across and grabs it. She sees Nick Fury’s name on the screen and her frown deepens as she answers it.

“Nick? What’s wrong?”

“We have a possible situation.”

“A _possible_ situation?”

“Is Barnes with you?”

Corrie sits back in her seat. “I’m not sure. I know he was meeting his great niece for dinner last night. I’m in the office, I don’t know if he’s back or not. I can check. Hold on, let me track his phone.”

She logs into the security system and calls up the GPS information for Bucky’s cell.

“His cell is sending a signal from Buchanan Books which makes sense because that’s where he said he’d be.”

“Well if his phone is here, he’s not. Get over here. Bring Wilson.”

* * *

The moment Fury ends the call, she pushes back from her desk and heads to the living quarters.

The building is in darkness which reminds Corrie of the lateness of the hour or the earliness if you haven’t been to sleep in the first place. She instructs AMI to turn the lights of the living room area on low as she heads further in. Bucky’s bedroom door is shut.

He’s not here, she’s almost certain of it. He wouldn’t leave his phone behind but she needs to check to be absolutely sure. Perhaps he has forgotten it and plans to pick it up it later today but as soon as the thought crosses her mind, she discards it; she knows that he wouldn’t forget it or leave it behind, he’s careful, he’s always careful where his phone is concerned.

“AMI, status update on James Barnes?” she requests anyway. She ignores the nerves fluttering in her stomach.

“ _Update in progress,”_ AMI acknowledges and Corrie waits for her response which isn’t long in coming.

“ _Sergeant Barnes isn’t on the premises,”_ she confirms. Corrie takes a slow deep breath as she processes this piece of information.

“What time was he last on site?” she enquires instead. Another, briefer silence.

_“Sergeant Barnes was last on site at eighteen thirty hours yesterday evening. He hasn’t returned since.”_

Corrie exhales quietly. “Thank you, AMI,” she answers.

“Corrie?” She turns and sees Sam peering out of his bedroom door half asleep. “Problem?”

“Bucky didn’t return from his niece’s place last night,” she tells him and sees how he frowns.

“Maybe he decided to stay over.” Corrie shakes her head at this, even though she wishes that’s what’s happened.

“He would’ve called to let me know if that were the case. Fury wants us at Buchanan Books as soon as possible.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. Fury said there’s a possible situation and if it concerns Bucky then…”

If it also involves Katie then it definitely won’t be good.

* * *

The early morning sky is a watery grey colour. Corrie exits the SUV and with Sam beside her, crunches through freshly fallen snow to where Fury is standing on the sidewalk in front of the book store. He’s alone, staring up at the building. He turns when he hears them approach.

“Barnes?”

“Isn’t at the complex. Which you already know. There’s been no sign of him since he left to come here yesterday evening yet his phone is still sending a signal from here.” She looks up at the building too, sees the lights on, shadows and movement flitting across the windows.

“A member of staff at the book store showed up for her shift as usual to find the place still closed, locked down, lights off and no signs of life. Apparently this is very unlike Miss Barnes. If she’s sick or not available to open up, she gets in touch with her employee to arrange cover. She didn’t do this. Her employee also noticed that the front door leading to Miss Barnes’s apartment was unlocked and she went inside, figuring perhaps her boss had an accident or overslept or something of that nature. She found her unconscious on the floor. Called 911. When Miss Barnes’s name came over the airwaves, I got a phone call from my contact within the police department as an FYI.”

Corrie’s eyes go wide. “Is she okay?”

“Head injury. She’s lain there overnight so she was also very cold. Could be touch and go. The fact we can’t locate Barnes is concerning.”

“He’s obviously been here if his phone is in there somewhere.” Corrie responds.

“Then we need to get inside before law enforcement locate it,” Fury tells her

She looks up at the building again before looking back at Fury, “Can we go in?”

“Yeah,” Fury agrees.

“Have Miss Barnes’s family been informed?” she asks as they head inside.

“Her father is with her at the hospital. He doesn’t know of anyone who’d want to hurt his daughter, he’s understandably distraught.” 

“I can imagine.”

* * *

The place is swarming with cops and various forensic people. Corrie watches them all as they work, careful to stay out of their way. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and dials Bucky’s number and her head turns sharply when she hears a familiar insistent buzzing noise. He’s not one for ring tones. It seems to be coming from beneath a heavy looking tall cabinet to her left that holds a dinner service of some description. She heads over to it and crouches down. There’s a small gap between the raised base of the cabinet and the floor. She lies flat on her stomach and she reaches underneath. Her eyes go wide when her fingers brush against something hard and rectangular and she stretches further and grabs onto it. Slowly she extracts a cell phone and for a moment just stares at it. Then she gets to her feet, holding it tightly.

“I’ll take that.”

Corrie blinks at the brusquely spoken words and fixes her attention on the person who’s standing in front of her.

“I beg your pardon?”

He holds out a hand expectantly. “It’s evidence in an ongoing investigation. Hand it over,” he demands with a twitch of the fingers of that hand. Corrie just regards him.

“Not that it’s really any of your business but this cell phone is mine.”

“It’s evidence at a crime scene,” he repeats and Corrie sighs quietly.

“I understand that but it belongs to my organisation and believe me when I say we have precedence over yours.”

“Somehow I don’t think so.” His expression is scornful and it’s all Corrie can do not to roll her eyes at him.

“I think the gentleman at the door will say otherwise. Director Nick Fury. With SHIELD. Heard of him?” She waits as he looks at him over Corrie’s shoulder. Recognition crosses his face. He lowers his hand and then he nods.

“I have,” he confirms. Not so brusque now. 

“Glad to hear it,” Fury answers calmly. “So you’ll understand when I say that the contents of that cell phone are highly classified and way above your pay grade. I’d advise you to walk away and forget you ever saw it. Please.” Fury requests in a manner that doesn’t really sound like advice. After a moment, the forensics guy backs away.

“You’re interfering in an ongoing investigation,” he mutters.

“My organisation and my colleague. My responsibility.” Corrie murmurs, frowning at the screen already forgetting about him. She then looks at Fury “It’ll need his biometric information,” she remembers, sighing in frustration. In other words, his fingerprint.

“Give it to me,” Sam requests, approaching her with a wiggle of the fingers of his left hand and she does so. She watches as he types something into it and it springs into life. “There you go,” he tells her and hands it back. She looks at him in surprise.

“How did you…”

“I saw him key in his passcode a couple of times.”

“But it’s also supposed to be biometrically protected!”

Sam shrugs. “I know but he prefers a code. Kick his ass when you find him,” he replies. She sighs as she returns her attention to the phone.

“Oh I plan to,” she mutters.

* * *

They stand around as she quickly checks through his phone but finds nothing that could tell them where he went. She looks at Fury, worry clear on her face.

“He doesn’t go anywhere without his phone and the fact that it was under that cabinet suggests some kind of force was used to get him out of here.” She keeps her voice low.

“You think he’s been taken?” Sam enquires.

“You don’t? We’ve had this conversation before. Kelly first made contact with Bucky further along this street. We’re pretty sure it was him who was taking pot shots at him and Katie in the cemetery at the weekend. It makes sense that he’d do his homework, want to know who Katie is in context to Bucky. He’s obviously found out, showed up here and got the jump on him. He’s probably the one who hurt Katie.”

“And Bucky wouldn’t be expecting it as he was here having dinner with his niece, who no one outside of the three of us knows about. Oh God…” Sam’s eyes widened as something occurs to him.

“Oh God what?” Corrie enquires, not liking how Sam’s eyes slowly widen.

“Yesterday Bucky told me that Katie had a date, a guy named Jack, he said that was why he didn’t go over the day before. You think…”

“Jack is Jonathan? It’s possible, highly probable. God, he used Katie to get to Bucky? That’s just evil.” She slowly shakes her head in disbelief.

“He was worried that something like this might happen if his past caught up to his present. It’s why he’s so reluctant to let any more of his family in,” Sam supplies.

Corrie swallows, suddenly feeling a little nauseous.

“He’s tough,” Fury reminds them both.

“He’ll be fighting mad with it.” Sam agrees.

“We have to find him,” Corrie adds.

“Then you need to get back to base, use those skills of yours to get a bead on him,” Fury reminds her.

“And what are you going to do in the meantime?”

“The same. We’ll find him, don’t worry,” he answers. “Get back to base Corrie, that’s an order.”

* * *

He opens his eyes on a quiet gasp of pain. As he does, he startles and he feels a brief bolt of panic spurt through him. His eyes go wide as the adrenaline kicks in. The last thing he remembers is being in Katie’s apartment, seeing Kelly and then nothing else until now.

_Have HYDRA recaptured him?_

_Is Kelly a HYDRA agent?_

_Where the hell is he?_

_Where is Katie?_

His head is pounding. His arms are pulled above his head, his right arm feeling like it’s about to pop right out of its socket. Heart pulsing, he looks up, ignoring the pain that lances through his head at the movement. His wrists are tied together and secured by a chain suspended from a hook embedded in the ceiling. He frowns and then looks down. The tips of his toes scuff against concrete. The room he’s being kept in is lit by a single weak bulb, that stretch shadows across the floor and the walls. He isn’t able to make out any windows. It’s also freezing cold. His jacket and hoodie are gone but at least they’ve left his boots on.

He hears a door opening somewhere and he turns his head in the direction of the sound. Light from the outside follows the visitor in. He remains still as he sees Jonathan Kelly walk towards him. He’s carrying something in his left hand and Bucky sees the self-satisfied expression on his face.

“Good morning Soldat, I thought you were going to sleep all day,” he greets. Bucky just stares at him.

“Cat got your tongue?” he asks as he pauses in front of him.

“I didn’t want to waste my breath but I guess you got me,” Bucky drawls.

“I did. I got you. I said I would.”

“No, what you _said_ was that your boss would be interested in meeting me and that’s not you. How’s the shoulder by the way. Stopped hurting yet?”

The smug expression fades from Kelly’s face.

“You don’t want to piss me off,” he warns.

“Or what?” Bucky sneers, “What will you do?”

He feels something being jabbed against his ribs. Pain explodes and he feels his muscles contract. He gives a grunt of pain and he closes his eyes as everything fades to white.

* * *

Corrie heads into her office, shrugging off her coat. She heads to her computer and fires it up. As she sits down, there’s a tap on her door. She sees Jason standing there, a tablet in one hand.

“Do you have a minute Miss Harris?” he enquires, hovering in the doorway but not coming inside.

“Not really Jason, can it wait? I’ve got a lot on my plate right now.” She stares at her screen, a frown marring her brow, her mind already busy with what she has to do.

“To do with Sergeant Barnes’s disappearance, I know.”

This gets Corrie’s attention and her head snaps up and she stares at him. “It’s all over the complex, everyone’s working on it. Director Fury’s orders.” This time he comes into the office, closing the door behind him and he approaches her desk.

“It’s how I can help. I know where he is.”

Corrie’s eyes widen in shock. “How the hell could you know that?”

“By tracking him.”

“Excuse me? I saw you take that chip out of Bucky’s arm myself.”

“I know but after that, and after Annie’s sister was rescued, he came to see me with an idea.”

* * *

_Jason turns at the tap on his door and blinks in surprise when he sees Sergeant Barnes standing there, waiting for permission to enter. Throughout the morning all everyone has been able to talk about is his and Sam’s rescue of Annie’s sister, Amanda. Annie is currently in the Med Bay watching over her with an additional guard present though Jason isn’t sure who the security is for, exactly._

_“You got a minute Jason?” the soldier asks and still a little dumbfounded by his unexpected presence, Jason nods and watches as he comes into his lab._

_“What can I help you with?” he asks instead._

_“Just something that crossed my mind this morning and I was wondering whether you could give me some advice, some thoughts on it.”_

_Jason takes a slow breath. “Sure. I know you were on a late night mission. Do you want me to take another look at your arm, check for any damage or wear and tear?” he offers. He sees how he looks down at his prosthetic arm and then nods._

_“Sure. It’s about the arm I want to talk to you about anyway.”_

_“Take a sea, Sergeant.”_

_“Bucky.”_

_“Pardon me?”_

_“Call me Bucky, kid.”_

_He waits until Jason has completed his preliminary checks. The kid looks satisfied._

_“What do you want to talk to me about?” he asks, sitting down across from him._

_“I know you took a tracker out of my arm the other day but it gave me an idea.”_

_“About what?”_

_“Would you be able to put another one in, something SHIELD or Stark sanctioned?”_

_Jason stares at him in surprise. “Really?”_

_Bucky nods. “The business with Annie and her sister got me thinking. Could you put something together, similar to the GPS tracker in my phone, something that would maybe be missed in a scan?”_

_“Is this a just in case you’re compromised or are kidnapped scenario because I’ve seen you in action Sergeant…umm Bucky and if you excuse my honesty, you’re pretty formidable.”_

_“But it could happen one day and I’d like to be covered just in case. The difference in this case would be that I’ll know about it and have consented to it. Would you be able to…I don’t know, create something?”_

_Jason regards him, already his brain is buzzing with possibilities. “How soon would you want it?”_

_“As soon as possible. You think you can do it?”_

_“I might. Could you call back here by the end of today?”_

_“Sure. I’ll be around all day, let me know when you’re ready.”_

* * *

“And when did you install this new chip?” Corrie enquires once Jason has finished explaining himself.

“Later that same day. I modified one that we already had on site. It was smaller than the one I’d originally removed and harder to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. To the uninitiated it just looks like part of the arm’s circuitry.”

“And it’s live…you’ve found him?”

“I’ve tracked him to an address upstate. I’m assuming he’s still there because there’s been no movement since late last evening and I sincerely doubt they’ve found the chip I installed.” 

His confidence in his ability is one of the reasons why she recruited him.

Corrie watches him tap on his tablet for a few seconds before handing it to her. It’s a map. She stares at it for another moment and then touches the screen to expand the image. There’s a detached property that looks to be in the middle of nowhere. It would make sense, if Bucky’s there, to keep him somewhere away from any unwanted attention.

The name of the area is familiar to her and she takes a slow deep breath as she goes back to her own computer to double check the address to be sure. After a moment, she looks at Jason who is still hovering nervously nearby and she smiles somewhat grimly.

“Remind me to give you a pay rise when this is all over,” she tells him as she reaches for her cell phone. She takes another, deeper breath as she keys in a number and then holds it to her ear. Time seems to stand still as she waits for it to connect but finally it does.

“Hey, Diana? It’s Corrie Harris. I do know what time it is, sorry but this is an emergency. Remember that favour you said you owed me? I’m about to call it in. If I send you some coordinates could you do me a huge favour?”

* * *

Corrie exhales on a shaky breath.

The property is registered to Alex French. She pulls up an image of the property. Sprawling, in the middle of nowhere. Acres of land. It’s the perfect place to store a former assassin. She wonders what Patrick could be doing with Bucky. She didn’t think he had any connection to HYDRA or their affiliates but it’s been years since she last saw him so anything is possible, she suspects. Clicking through the images of the property, she’s almost sure it’s the same location as those wedding photographs. Do they live there? Is Rory there? She feels the hope rise within her. Patrick will keep her near to him. Her daughter could be so close. She pushes it down. She needs to check it out for herself and for that she’ll need a clear head. If Patrick wants the Asset then this would definitely be the perfect place to keep him and that will mean he’ll be on the property somewhere, keeping something so precious close to him. She ignores the tremble of fear in the pit of her stomach at the thought of facing him again. No matter what she’s claimed, what Bucky has said to her, he still scares her.

She looks up at the team that files into the conference room a short while later.

“You said on the phone that you’d located him, so what are we doing here?” Sam demands somewhat belligerently.

“I didn’t find him, Jason did,” Corrie corrects him and sees how Sam glances across at the young technician who stands somewhat nervously nearby. Jason raises a hand somewhat awkwardly in acknowledgment.

“Bucky requested another tracker be installed in his prosthetic which Jason installed a couple of days ago. Bucky has been located at a residence in upstate New York and according to current data, he’s still there.”

“So why aren’t we going out there to get him?”

“Because the property is registered to Alex French.” She glances at Fury as she says this. “For whatever reason, Patrick Donoghue has Bucky.”

“You think taken there by Jonathan Kelly, who was masquerading as Katie’s boyfriend, Jack,” Sam adds on and Corrie just nods.

“He must’ve got the drop on Bucky and brought heavy reinforcements to manage that,” he continues. Corrie happens to agree with him on that one.

“I’m almost certain now that the supposed mugging was a set up. Kelly wanted to see Bucky up close. The boss he alluded to is Donoghue. I’m puzzled as to why specifically but given what I know about my ex, I’m assuming that he’s another rung in a ladder of power and he’s trying to impress someone higher up. What better way than to gift him with the Winter Soldier?”

“Bucky won’t go willingly.”

“We know that but I doubt they do. I’m assuming they still think the trigger sequence is operational because this entire operation has a distinct lack of sophistication about it so I doubt they’d know Bucky’s trigger sequence has been successfully dismantled.” Sam is right, Bucky will not go willingly. He’s much stronger than he used to be, much more confident of himself these days.

“I called in a favour with my friend Diana. Some of you know she works for one of the initialled services in this country shall we say and I’m not about to reveal which one but she owed me a favour and sent this to me half an hour ago.” She keys something into her tablet and an image shows up on the big screen.

“This is a satellite image of the property we believe Bucky is being held at.” She swipes through them, amazed all over again by how much detail these satellites can go into.

“First of all, there is this image.” A photo of an entourage of three large SUV type vehicles in a line heading towards the main property. Another photo shows each of the vehicles disappearing inside, what Corrie assumes is a large garage. “I’m pretty convinced Bucky is in that property somewhere and one of those vehicles has him.” She looks around at her audience.

“And then there’s this.” Another photo.

“Taken within the past twenty four hours. As expected, the residence is heavily guarded. Perhaps because Bucky is being held there but I also suspect for another reason.” She enhances an image of four people standing near a tennis court. Four people. “The person on the left hand side is eleven years old. She’s my daughter, Rory.” She exhales shakily as she stares at the willowy child standing beside who she knows from previous photographs to be Alexandra Donoghue and all she can feel is relief that her only child didn’t get caught up in the Blip. She then looks around the room.

“ The other three are Alexandra Donoghue nee French, Jonathan Kelly and Patrick Donoghue.” She points to each figure in turn. “We need to plan everything carefully and with utmost precision. I’m going in there to retrieve my child.” She looks at the people present in the room, almost daring them to try and argue with her, persuade her otherwise. Wisely, nobody does. “It needs to go like clockwork. No mistakes. No room for error. Bucky and Rory; they are our objectives. I don’t care what happens to anyone or anything else.”


	10. Rescue Mission Redux.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rescue and retrieval mission. Corrie's life changes forever. 
> 
> Triggers warnings for mentions and portrayals of violence and torture. All errors are my own and unintentional.

**Rescue Mission Redux.**

The house is palatial. White stone, sprawling in size. According the building plans she’d discovered, there are more rooms than sense for three people but she doesn’t think that’s something that would’ve gone through her ex-husband’s head at the time. It’s opulent, _that’s_ the look he’ll be going for, the size won’t matter.

The property screams wealth, privilege. He has aspirations. If Bucky is here then those aspirations are big, confident. She just wonders how much research he’s done into his latest acquisition.

Her primary mission right now is to locate her child. The rest of the team will locate Bucky. She has no doubt that she will encounter her ex-husband and the thought of it sends a trickle of cold sweat down her spine. Bucky has said that she can handle her ex, has confidence in her being able to do so but that’s just a theory right now. In an ideal world, she’d locate Rory and get her out of there without coming across him but she knows that won’t happen. She knows that he will fight her every step of the way to keep her from taking her. His mistake will be thinking that she’s still the girl he left in a pool of blood in that flat in London.

“You okay?” Sam keeps his voice low.

Corrie glances at him. She nods, just the once, eyes ahead again.

“I would tell you to stay behind me at all times but we both know you’re going to ignore that,” he begins. “I also know you can take care of yourself but be careful. We’re here to locate your daughter and Bucky and get them both out. That’s it, that’s our mission. Don’t go looking for trouble if it’s not in your way, do you understand me?” For a moment she doesn’t answer. “Corrie? Do you understand me?” he repeats. Eventually she makes eye contact with him.

“I understand,” she responds, keeping her voice level.

“Make sure that you do because the minute I sense that you don’t, you will be stood down, I don’t care what your reason for being here is.” It gets the desired effect and he sees the mutinous glint in her eye. “Don’t you look at me like that, you know I’ll do it,” he tags on.

“I know you will,” she replies and her shoulders slump for a moment before straightening again. “I guess you’re calling the shots here tonight, Sam,” she tells him.

Sam’s inclines his head very slightly. “Damn straight I am and don’t you forget it. I already think it’s a bad idea you being here so don’t make me regret it.”

“My being here was non-negotiable, Sam,” she reminds him. He just regards her.

“I don’t care. You step out of line and you’ll be out of here. Got it?”

“Got it,” she mutters.

* * *

She ignores the steady thrum of her pulse as the team gains access to the house. This is new for her. She’s used to being back at base, monitoring. She’s not used to being in the thick of it and that she’s not the one in charge. She’s clad in black: close fitting canvas pants, a long sleeved tight black shirt with a Kevlar vest over it. A knife holster is strapped to her right thigh, a gun holster to her left. Her weapon is held tight in her hand. She’s fully trained in both. Once she left hospital and recuperated from her injuries, Fury made sure she could defend herself. Natasha helped her polish her skills and some of the best weapons experts at SHIELD taught her how to handle a gun. She knows that she can look after herself but coming so soon after telling Bucky and Sam about her ex and now being in the same building as him, has unnerved her slightly. She keeps telling herself to look on him as any other adversary and not the father of her child, not the man who terrorised, controlled and beat her. She keeps reminding herself that she’s not that scared woman of before, that she’s faced up to worse people than him but her head and her heart aren’t quite getting the same message. She still feels a tremor of fear at the thought of coming face to face to him again.

Outside, a separate team are locating and securing any and all people affiliated with Patrick Donoghue.

Inside, the group separate and begin to search. They swarm through the estate like ants and each report back that their location is clear. Corrie follows three operatives up a sweeping staircase and onto the first floor. Methodically they check each room and there are quite a few of them. So many bedrooms for three people. The silence is heavy, pressing down and it unsettles her even more. There’s nobody here. She refuses to let herself feel disappointed. They have to still be here somewhere. She checks the monitor attached to her wrist. The tracker in Bucky’s arm is still telling her that he’s here, the red dot blinking steadily. Jason had been absolutely confident that there was no way anyone would locate it in a sweep. He was quite proud of that fact so she has to believe that he’s being held here somewhere nearby.

“Any sign?” Sam’s voice in her ear.

“Nothing.”

“Same.” She can hear the frustration in his voice.

“Wouldn’t a place like this have a safe room? Maybe they’re hidden in there?”

“Maybe but this place is like a ghost town, they can’t all hide in there with them.”

“Maybe they’re protecting Bucky?” she suggests. It would make sense. He’s a valuable asset to someone so would make sure he’s protected but it wouldn’t explain how quiet it is in here.

“Ms Harris?” Another voice interrupts. One of their operatives. She pauses.

“Go ahead,” she instructs.

“We’ve found a body.”

* * *

“Male or female?”

“Female. Young.”

Corrie’s heart plunges to the pit of her stomach.

“Where are you?” Her voice is barely a whisper.

“The East Wing,” the voice supplies.

“You need to stay calm now Corrie,” Sam’s voice again. Cautionary. She feels her heart begin to flutter in her chest. Fear begins to emerge.

“I am calm,” she assures him.

“It might not be her,” he tacks on.

“It’d explain the distinct lack of ex-husband and his band of not so merry men though.” Her voice wobbles.

“Let me go and check it out for you,” he volunteers. Corrie takes a slow deep breath to centre herself.

“No. I need to do this.”

“No you don’t.”

“Sam. I have to. Don’t make me pull rank on you,”

“Don’t you mean don’t make me?” he corrects, his tone sharpening. She sighs and slowly shakes her head instead.

“I’ll meet you there,” she tells him and then looks at the operative who stands guard beside her and waits.

“I’m going to the East Wing. You need to keep searching here. Anything untoward and you let me or Sam know.”

She sees him shake his head.

“I have strict orders to keep you in sight at all times, Ms Harris,” he responds.

“Whose orders?” she demands, all of a sudden belligerent and tired of being coddled.

“Captain America’s,” he explains and she sighs again.

“Why am I not surprised?” she mutters and she turns around.

* * *

Her heart continues to pulse, threatening to burst out of her chest as she heads to the East Wing. The operative remains beside her like a shadow. It doesn’t do anything to ease her mood but she made a promise to Sam and like it or not, she intends to keep it.

Another row of doors greets her at her left. Halfway along the corridor she sees Sam poke his head out and he looks at her. His expression is sombre. Part of her wants him to tell her who the body belongs to but she doesn’t. He waits until she’s beside him.

“In here,” he tells her and watches her go inside.

They’re inside what can only be described as the master bedroom. Decorated in various shades of blue, it’s all very masculine in its décor and she has a strange sense of déjà vu as she enters. 

“She’s in the bathroom,” Sam informs her as Corrie pauses for a second to get her bearings. It’s a huge space with a king sized bed up against one plain white wall.

“Door’s already open,” he adds on and Corrie takes a slow deep breath and heads towards it.

She takes a couple of tentative steps inside. Everything is white, brilliantly blindingly white. She sees the shower, the deep claw footed tub and the girl lying in a crumpled heap beside it. The blood that rings her head is deeply, offensively red. Corrie swallows against a suddenly dry throat and she carefully approaches her and pauses beside her. She crouches down and for a moment she just looks at her. Her dark hair is tossed over her face and she cautiously moves a swatch of it away, revealing her face to her.

She recognises her, only the last time she saw her was in her wedding photographs. She’d been smiling in them, a wide happy adoring smile. In her white designer bridal gown, looking forward to her future with the man she loved. A man very good at showing the world one face when in truth the other was much darker, much crueller.

She’s blackened by bruises, swollen. Battered. Eyes still open, staring up at the ceiling, the whites blotched with more red. Corrie looks down and sees more bruises, blackberry purple, around her throat. She exhales shakily and feels tears brim. For a moment she’s just grateful it isn’t her daughter’s body she’s looking at.

“Damn it,” she whispers and wipes away the tears that spill over. She looks at the tub and she sees the smear of red that marks the white marble. She can see long dark hairs entwined in there too. She gently presses two fingers against the pulse point in her neck. Her skin is cooling. She’s been gone a little while. She gets to her feet and turns and sees Sam just inside the entrance watching her.

“It’s Alexandra French,” she confirms.

“He beat her.”

“It looks like it. I doubt a simple fall caused any of those injuries.” She scans the body again and gives her head a shake as she looks back at him.

“He did the same to you.” She nods all of a sudden exhausted.

“He did. Difference was I was saved by Fury. She didn’t have that. I need to find my daughter.” She brushes past Sam. If she’s still here and Patrick hasn’t got the jump on her again and vanished once more into the ether. She goes into the bedroom and stops in the centre of the large room. Sam follows and sees how she pauses.

Her head tilts to one side very slightly as a thought comes to her. And she wonders.

A house this big, there’s always a dressing room. After all she’d had one.

As well as a lot of hiding spaces.

She crosses the room and opens a plain white door.

She’s right, she realises as she steps inside the room.

* * *

There are racks of clothing, all colour coordinated designer wear, fitting the profile of what the wife of Patrick Donoghue should be expected to look like. There’s nothing casual or comfortable on show. No jeans or sweats or cosy baggy sweaters. She looks at the shoes all displayed in their boxes. Those alone would cost more than her annual SHIELD salary. She remembers how he expected her to always look immaculate; once she got away from him, she lived in jeans and leggings almost as an act of defiance. It was liberating to say the least.

Now she stands in the middle of this room surrounded by another woman’s clothes, another woman’s misery and she’s struggling to remain present. Her child is here somewhere. She’s sure of it. She has to be.

“What are you thinking?” Sam enquires. Even though his voice is quiet, it still startles her a little.

“When Rory was a little girl, I taught her to hide when her father was in one of his moods. She was two. The moment his temper began to flare, she’d be gone. You’d be amazed at where she could hide herself when inspiration struck.” She bites her bottom lip as her eyes continue to scan the interior, at the smooth plain walls. She can smell a hint of an expensive perfume. She knows it will be something designer, Patrick doesn’t do mediocre.

“She didn’t manage to the last time.”

Corrie just shakes her head. “No. The flat was too small and she didn’t know the layout too well. He grabbed her up before she could.”

She slowly moves to the middle of the room and she listens

“Why aren’t you looking for Bucky?” she asks him when she doesn’t hear him move.

“Because I promised him that if it came down to it and we were in a situation just like this one, I’d stay with you,” he answers. The look she throws him over her shoulder is scathing.

“You promised him? Without consulting me?” Her tone is arch and all she gets from Sam in response is a slow shrug, as if to say _so sue me_

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not helpless?”

“Donoghue is still on the loose somewhere and until he’s in custody or otherwise, you’re stuck with me. Deal with it.”

Corrie’s shoulders slump in defeat. A noise catches her attention, a tiny intake of breath, almost a sob and she looks at Sam and lifts her finger to her lips and he slowly nods in acknowledgement. She turns her head and her eyes scan the room’s interior once again.

“Aurora Grace, can you hear me?” she asks. She strains to listen but can no longer hear anything.

“Do you remember me? Do you recognise my voice?” she continues. “I know it’s been a little while but you need to try and remember.” She waits and for another long moment there’s no response.

“You sound like my mum but you can’t be. Dad said you died.” The voice is low, scared and despite everything, Corrie’s heart lifts and she blinks against tears that threaten to flood her eyes.

“Well as you can hear sweetheart, I didn’t. I’m alive and here to take you home.” Her voice wobbles just a little bit.

“You could be anyone. You just want me to come out of my hiding place. You could be trying to trick me,” she accuses and Corrie’s elation dies away as quickly as it filled her.

“Well I do want you to come out but who do you think taught you how to hide in the first place when dad was in one of his moods? That last time you weren’t quick enough and he took you from me. Remember Mr Fury from work? He’s been helping me to look for you ever since and I have been. I’ve never given up looking. Your father was much cleverer in hiding you from me.”

Silence. Heavy and thick.

“He calls me Grace. Told me Aurora is a baby’s name.”

“You’re my Rory. You’re my baby girl.” She waits and holds her breath when she hears a scuffling sound. She turns in its direction and right at the back of the dressing room, partially hidden by a row of long evening gowns, a small door slides to one side. Her heart is hammering in her chest when she sees a red headed girl, all arms and legs, crawl out. Her eyes widen slightly as she watches her emerge and stand up and face her. She’s wearing a long white nightgown, her feet bare. She faces Corrie with some trepidation and Corrie watches as her fear is slowly replaced by something else: disbelief.

“It _is_ you,” she whispers. Corrie can’t speak, she nods instead and she holds out her arms as Rory hurries towards her and throws herself into them.

Corrie holds on tightly as Rory tucks her face into the hollow of her shoulder and she gently rocks her. With one hand she gently strokes her hair. A few moments pass before Rory lifts her head and they look at each other close up.

“I hoped you would come and find me. That he’d been lying to me.”

“I’m here. I’m going to take you home, I promise,” Corrie whispers. She frames her face with her hands, scanning her face. “You’ve grown.”

“I’m eleven now, mum,” Rory answers and her mother manages a tremulous smile which then slowly fades as she examines her daughter’s face, at the faded bruising.

“He hurt you too.” It’s not a question. For a moment Rory just stares at her and fresh tears brew and she eventually nods. Corrie pulls her back into her arms as Rory cries some more and she feels fresh anger begin to brew.

“He’s not going to hurt you again sweetheart, I promise.”

* * *

“We need to get you both out of here,” Sam tells Corrie as they approach him. He sees how she frowns “It was part of the deal Corrie, you find your daughter and get her out of here and the rest of us locate Bucky.”

“He’ll be in the basement,” Rory tells him and both adults stare at her in surprise.

“We already have a crew down in the basement, he’s not there,” Sam tells her.

Rory shrugs somewhat casually. “The new basement. After the Blip, he had some work done down there. I was never allowed to go near it and told never to go there but it’d make sense, right?”

“It would. Could you tell us how to access it?” Sam asks.

“I could show you instead,” she replies.

“Honey, we need to get you out of here, away from all of this as quickly as possible.”

“He hurt Alex and he needs to be stopped. I want to help you do that,” Rory replies, her voice hardening and Corrie stares at her in surprise.

“That sounded eerily familiar,” Sam murmurs and Corrie glares at him.

“They don’t need us to do that sweetheart,” she then explains but she does recognise the steady look she sees in her child’s eyes at this.

“She knows how to get to this new basement. It’ll save us time hunting for it. We go in, locate Bucky and then head out and leave the rest of the team to locate Donoghue and anyone else,” Sam responds, still in a low voice and Corrie looks at him again. Their gazes hold for a long moment before she looks back at Rory.

“Okay. You can show us where the entrance to this new basement is and then you and I will get the hell out of here. Is that a deal?”

Rory nods and she winds her arms around her mother’s waist and hugs her once more. Corrie holds on tight. It feels good to have her daughter in her arms again. She then draws back.

“You don’t leave my sight, do you understand? This is Sam. I trust him with my life and you should too. If we become separated for _any_ reason then you should stay with him, he’ll protect you.” Another nod from Rory. Corrie looks at Sam again “And if for any reason I can’t get her out of here, _you_ must. You must protect her with your life. Do you promise me?” She sees how his eyes widen at her words.

“Corrie…”

“Do you promise me, Sam?” she interrupts and eventually he nods. Corrie gives a single nod and takes a deep breath. She takes Rory’s hand and they leave the dressing room.

* * *

She tugs Rory to her right and slightly behind her as she follows Sam out of the bedroom. She draws her gun and holds it in her left hand. Rory doesn’t make a sound as they creep along the corridor. They pause at the top of the staircase. A group of their operatives have an assortment of men on their knees on the lobby floor, hands interlaced behind their heads. Corrie does a quick count. There looks to be about ten of them. One of the operatives looks up at them.

“Another dozen are outside, under arrest and…” He looks at Rory “otherwise.”

“Any sign of Donoghue?” Corrie asks. He shakes his head.

“Could he have decided to cut his losses and just run?” Sam asks her as they descend.

“And leave Rory behind? No. His idea to capture the Winter Soldier to impress whatever boss he’s trying to impress was ambitious but he would not have left her behind, not if he knew I was alive and looking. Which he did,” Corrie responds.

* * *

Bucky feels like he can’t breathe properly, that he can’t take a deep enough breath. When he tries, it feels like his lungs can’t hold enough air. It all feels strangely familiar somehow. A cattle prod to the ribs he can take, though. It beats the alternative.

“How do you like that, you son of a bitch,” Kelly snarls at him, wielding the prod. Bucky slowly opens his eyes and he stares at him. Then he smiles.

“It…tickles,” he whispers and sees the annoyance that flares in his eyes. He slowly smiles again.

“What do you think… you can do to me…. that other people… _scarier_ people than you… haven’t already tried?” he asks him. His voice is soft. Kelly stares at him.

“Because if you’re trying…to step into your brother’s…shoes…then you’ve failed…miserably.” He sees his surprise. “Oh yeah…we know who you are...”

“He’s dead because of you!” Kelly hisses and Bucky slowly, laboriously shakes his head.

“No…No… He’s dead because he’s a fucking…idiot. Nothing to do with me. He went up against Cap and… he lost. He never knew when to give up, to know when he was…beat. I guess it runs in the family.”

“I’m not the one tied up.”

“Because you’re too damned scared to take me on otherwise… man to man,” Bucky goads.

“You’d rather go after my… niece than confront me …head on. First couple of times you ran like a goddamn …coward. Last time you brought…friends.” He closes his eyes and tries to take another breath. When that fails, he opens them again and fixes them on Kelly.

“What are you trying… to do? Tune me up… for your boss? Does that… make you feel all… important inside? C’mon, cut me… loose, face me. Your brother… never did, he was… scared of me too, did you… know that? That’s something else that… runs in the family… I guess,” he taunts. He’s finding it really tough to take a deep enough breath, black speckles are dancing around the edge of his vision but he smiles once more and it has the desired effect as Kelly comes for him, with the prod ready once again.

“Jonathan!” Another voice interrupts sharply and Kelly freezes. Slowly he turns around and they both see the man standing in the doorway. Tall, dark haired. Bucky recognises him from the photographs Corrie shared with him, from the research he’d managed to do.

Patrick Donoghue.

He feels an ominous churn in his gut as he watches the man enter the room. His stride is slow almost casual, hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. Bucky observes him, taking experimental breaths, feeling his lungs expand with each inhalation, trying not to wince too hard at the accompanying pain.

“Can’t you tell he’s trying to wind you up? Make you lose control so you’ll attack him?” He stops in front of him and looks at him. There’s a slight smile on his face as he takes in the Soldier. One of satisfaction.

“He’s a skilled combatant, a master assassin. All of those stories you’ve heard about him are true. You really don’t want to piss him off.” His accent is cut glass, similar to Corrie’s.

“And you don’t want to damage the merchandise before we hand him over. He will be extremely unhappy if he’s not in absolute top notch condition.”

Bucky glances across at Kelly to see his shoulders slump and he takes a step away from him. Damn it.

“I’m very glad to finally make your acquaintance, Sergeant Barnes.” He sounds very civilised but Bucky continues to stare at him and doesn’t answer. Slowly he pulls his hands out of his pockets and folds his arms across his chest. Not before Bucky sees the bruises across his knuckles. Donoghue catches the look and he unfolds his arms to look at them.

“You’ve noticed them I see. Call it correcting disciplinary problems,” he answers, folding his arms once more. Bucky stares at him with pure loathing.

“Yeah, I can just imagine what those disciplinary problems were,” he drawls. Donoghue raises an eyebrow in mild surprise.

“So she told you?”

“Seen the pictures too.”

Another mild smile crosses the man’s face.

“There are pictures? Interesting. Maybe I’ll get to see them for myself one day,” he muses and Bucky feels the disgust brew deeper in the pit of his stomach. Donoghue regards him for a long moment.

“I don’t happen to care what you think of me. My work here is done. I have you. In less than twenty four hours time you’ll be off my hands and the responsibility of someone else. I hear you met before a few years ago. He was most eager to renew your acquaintance. I’m sure he’ll put you to excellent use.” He takes a step back and at the same time an alarm sounds from somewhere. Bucky watches him pull a cell phone out of his pocket and the smile vanishes as he stares at the screen.

“It would seem I have company. Time to deal with it.” He looks at Kelly.

“Play if you must but play nicely, that’s an order.”

Both of them watch him leave.

* * *

They end up in an enormous kitchen. Corrie stays behind Sam as she takes the room in. Huge space, white cupboards and black marble counter tops. All top of the range. Her last flat in London would’ve fit into this room easily with space left over. She doesn’t let go of Rory’s hand. She looks around and apart from a door leading outside and glazed doors leading to a patio area across from them, she can’t see a door that could lead to a basement.

“The basement where he may be is in this building, right?” Corrie asks her.

“Yes,” her daughter confirms.

“Gonna show me where, sweetheart?” Sam asks.

Corrie watches as Rory opens her mouth to speak, she lifts her hand to point but then her eyes widen and she hears her shaky gasp. She sees the fear in her child’s eyes and she turns her head and looks. Her own eyes go wide with recognition and she raises her weapon and she aims it at him. At the same time she sees him fling something towards her. She turns her head and pushes Rory towards Sam as they dive behind the counter top.

As it hits the floor, the entire room is engulfed in white light and noise. Corrie feels the force of the percussive wave and she swears the entire room shakes. She pulls Rory up against her, Sam is at her other side, holding the shield over them all as it feels as though the world is falling in on them.

* * *

The building seems to shudder, the weak lighting flickers. Dust shakes loose into the air. It’s enough to make Kelly pause and turn and look up. Taking a couple of steps back towards him as he does so. Within striking distance. Bucky realises that now is his chance.

“Hey!” he calls out and automatically Kelly turns and looks at him.

Years of training. Years of conditioning. Years of keeping in shape come to the fore as Bucky braces and then lifts his body up. The chain holds his weight as he wraps his legs around an unsuspecting Kelly’s throat and he crosses his ankles, trapping the man between his knees. He sees how his eyes bulge in shock as Bucky tightens his grip. He hears the prod hit the ground with a hollow clatter as Kelly uses both of his hands to grab onto Bucky’s legs, punching at him, trying to dig his fingers into the tight muscle in a desperate effort to get him to let go. Bucky grunts as he tightens his grip and increases the pressure. He watches as Kelly turns a deep scarlet colour, eyes bulging in fear and desperation. At the last moment Bucky twists, rotates his hips and knees and hears the deep pop and crunch of bone. Kelly’s eyes roll up in his head and he goes limp. Bucky holds for fifteen seconds more before releasing his grip. His thighs and hips are burning from the effort. He watches as Kelly crumples to the ground and doesn’t move. He takes a slow breath, relieved to discover that it’s easier to do now and then he looks up again at the hook in the ceiling.

Time to blow this popsicle stand.


	11. Corrie's Endgame.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrie and Patrick meet face to face for the first time in over seven years. 
> 
> And there's a further twist in Bucky's story. 
> 
> All errors are my own and unintentional. 
> 
> Trigger warnings for scenes of violence from the beginning.

**Corrie’s Endgame.**

Corrie waits a moment or two. Rory is sandwiched between herself and Sam, huddled up tightly together, the shield having protecting them from the worst of the blast.

“You guys okay?” she asks them.

“Yeah,” they both confirm.

“Good. Sam, you need to get Rory out of here,” she instructs as she begins to sit up. Sam copies, frowning at her.

“Like hell. Where you go, I go.”

“You can get her to safety. _Please.”_ She turns her head as she sees him come around the corner. “Go now!” she hisses as she begins to scramble to her feet. Her eyes widen when she sees the gun in Patrick’s hand. She freezes.

He aims and fires. Corrie braces for impact.

The bullets ricochet against Sam’s Falcon wings. He turns his head and he looks at her again.

“Take the shield and get the hell out!” he instructs, pushing it to her.

Corrie looks at him and she shakes her head and pushes it back. “He wants me.”

“He’s not gonna get you! You’re gonna get the hell out of here instead, you and Rory like I told you. That’s an order!” he hisses at her again.

“You get my daughter out of here like _we_ agreed!” 

“Damn it, Corrie!”

She pauses for another moment. She makes brief eye contact with Sam once again.

“I need to finish this Sam, once and for all,” and before he can react, she lunges to her feet, aiming her weapon at her ex-husband. As she does, she hears the wings click back into place.

“Corrine,” Patrick Donoghue murmurs and aims the weapon her way again. Behind her Sam gathers Rory close to him and murmurs quiet reassurances.

“Not another inch,” Patrick warns, not taking his eyes off Corrie and Sam pauses.

“Sam, you know what to do, I’ll cover you,” Corrie instructs.

“You’re quite brave these days.”

“You mean since you last saw me?”

“Well to be honest, I didn’t expect to see you again,” he answers and she feels her pulse rate kick up in response.

“Because you thought you’d killed me?”

“Oh I didn’t think that at all sweetheart, I knew your knight in shining armour would come to the rescue eventually and he apparently did. Where _is_ he by the way? I thought he’d be here by your side.”

“He’s around. You didn’t much care for him did you? He saw straight through you from the moment you were introduced and you didn’t like that because you couldn’t charm him like the others. He wasn’t impressed by you at all.”

“It’s all ancient history my darling. I’m going to take back what’s mine and you’re not going to stop me.” He takes a step towards her and despite herself, she flinches.

“I don’t fancy your chances on that. Your men are currently being herded up and the building is surrounded. You’re not getting out of here,” Corrie answers, her voice only trembling a little bit.

“Are you sure about that? You’re my ticket out of here. You, me and our daughter. Right now.”

“You talk as if you hold all the power.”

“Because I do. What makes you think that I won’t put a bullet through your head and then hers?” He takes another step towards her and Corrie takes one back and steadies her aim.

“You don’t have the guts,” Patrick drawls and she can see the sneer in his eyes. Instantly Corrie lowers the weapon and fires downwards, perilously close to his right foot. In the blink of an eye she’s aiming it straight at him again.

“Next time I won’t miss.”

“Likewise,” Patrick replies and pulls the trigger.

* * *

The blast of gunfire is deafening to her ears as the impact knocks Corrie back against the counter and she falls to her knees. She drops her weapon as the pain in her chest makes her gasp for air. She feels her vision begin to cloud around the edges. She doesn’t seem able to breathe. She’s aware of Rory calling her name but it sounds a little faded, far away. She turns her head and she looks up at her.

“Run,” she gasps out. “Get out of here!”

Rory doesn’t need to be told twice. She turns and bolts for the exit. As Corrie looks back she sees her ex-husband charge after her with Sam in pursuit. She sees Sam catch up to Rory first and wrap an arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet at the same time bursting through a door and out to safety.

Patrick skids to a halt and then turns his head and looks her way and she sees the deep loathing in his eyes.

“This is all your fault!” he snarls, striding back towards her. Corrie recognises the expression on his face. It’s been a while since she last saw it but she recognises it all the same. It turns her blood to ice and she feels the familiar fear rise inside of her. She should run, she should’ve taken Sam’s advice and got the hell out but she can’t move. Old memories have left her immobile. Her legs don’t want to co-operate. No matter what Bucky said to her about believing in her, she’s still afraid of her ex-husband and she hates the fact that she is.

“Kevlar. Interesting.” Patrick murmurs. He grabs onto the shoulder strap and pulls her upright. He presses the muzzle of his gun against her forehead. She feels it being ground against her skin and she sees his satisfied expression.

“You’re coming with me,” he tells her. His grip on her vest tightens as she tries to struggle.

“Keep still. Don’t be so stupid,” he growls at her and her eyes widen with fear. Despite the pain still radiating in her chest, Corrie forces her knee up, at the last moment he attempts to dodge out of the way but her knee still makes some contact. She has the satisfaction of seeing Patrick’s eyes widen and he quickly let’s go of her, staggering back a step or two. She breaks free, staggering past him and she heads towards the open door Sam and Rory went through. She yelps when she feels Patrick’s hand grab the hair at the back of her head and haul her back, throwing her down and she skids across the smooth floor. He’s on her in a second, straddling over her prone body and he slams the butt of his gun against the side of her head. She cries out and she sees stars as pain explodes inside of her skull and her eyes slide shut as darkness threatens.

“Bitch!” he snarls and once more he presses the gun against her forehead and she hears the sound of the hammer being drawn back. She opens her eyes and she stares up at him.

“Beg for your life,” he hisses at her. She stays silent. A tense moment ticks by where all that can be heard is the sound of her laboured breathing. Eventually he removes the gun.

“Like I said before, you’re coming with me.” He gets to his feet, hauling her up with him. For a moment Corrie doesn’t think her legs aren’t going to hold her weight as the room shifts and tilts and she thinks she’s going to black out.

“Don’t faint darling, I don’t want to have to drag you down there,” he tells her, his mouth against her ear.

“Down where?”

“To see your precious soldier of course. Isn’t that why you’re here?” He sounds supremely smug. “Don’t you want to see him one last time? I’m sure he’d love to see you. You seem very close for work colleagues.”

“You’re still talking like you’ve won,” she reminds him.

“Because I have. It’s just not what you think, that’s all. Now stop wasting time and move. And no funny business.” He pushes her forward and she staggers a step or two before regaining her balance. She straightens and tries not to think too much of how much her chest hurts, or how much her head hurts. She lifts a shaking hand and touches the side of her head and isn’t surprised to see blood on her fingertips.

“You do know that this place is overrun by SHIELD agents, don’t you? Your men have been apprehended and are either in custody or dead.”

“Keep walking. You don’t know anything,” Patrick answers.

“You killed your wife. Rory is gone and you’re never going to see her again. Whatever you think is going to happen with Bucky, isn’t. It’s over. You’ve lost.” She flinches when she feels him grab her hair and she stops moving.

“For once why don’t you just shut your mouth and do as you’re told?” he whispers against her ear.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” she answers with a short painful laugh. They stop beside what she initially thinks is a wall, smooth and painted white.

It’s not, she quickly realises. She watches as he reveals what she recognises as a touchpad and quickly taps in a series of numbers. In front of her a door slides open and before she can say anything, he pushes her through.

* * *

The door closes behind them.

“Move,” he instructs, pushing the muzzle of his gun between her shoulder blades. Corrie has no option to do as he says.

There’s an overriding smell of new concrete, dust and something chemical in the air. They pause at the bottom of the flight of stairs that lead down into what looks like a warren of corridors.

She winces when he grabs the hair at the back of her head again and she feels the muzzle of the gun being pressed against the back of her neck.

“Like I said, no funny business,” he quietly warns.

“So you’re taking me to see Bucky, then what?” she asks, ignoring the tremor in her voice.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he answers.

“In other words, you don’t know.” She huffs out another laugh. She gasps as he shoves her and she staggers and she almost loses her balance. She grabs onto the wall, feeling cold painted concrete beneath her fingertips. Slowly, carefully she straightens up. The strip lighting above her head buzzes quietly, blasting light into every available inch of space. She glances up at it and squints before another more impatient push between her shoulder blades has her moving again.

Her eyes take in her surroundings. There are a maze of corridors snaking off into the distance, leading off to who knows where. She realises that he had to have started creating this place long before the Blip happened. Everything seems very new and it’s cold. She feels the chill seep through her clothing.

* * *

He keeps hold of her as they slowly navigate the corridor, one hand wrapped tightly around one of the straps of the vest.

“This way,” he instructs with a wave of the gun and he manoeuvres her to turn right.

Her eyes go wide when she sees four bodies lying in a heap in the middle of the corridor. Behind her, Patrick gasps.

“ _No_!” he hisses and presses the muzzle of the gun between her shoulder blades in an instruction to move quicker.

They pause beside an open door. The room is dimly lit. Corrie can make out a chain suspended from the ceiling and crumpled on the ground beneath it is another body.

“Damn it!” Patrick curses and he pushes her inside, hard enough that she trips and falls heavily to her knees in its centre, beside the body. She realises very quickly that he’s dead. Her eyes widen briefly when she recognises him. Jonathan Kelly. She can see the deep purple bruising around his neck and she’ll hazard a guess that his neck is also broken. She turns her head and her eyes scan the room, peering into the shadows but it’s empty.

“What the _hell?”_ Patrick whispers in disbelief and despite herself, Corrie chuckles.

“What’s so funny?” she hears him demand somewhat irritably.

“You lost your asset, your soldier. The fact that you’re so surprised that he’s not where you left him is hilarious. From beginning to end, it’s been amateur hour with you lot.” She laughs again. Her chest and her head ache with the effort.

“You didn’t do your homework. If you had, he wouldn’t have escaped. Were you honestly expecting him to still be here, strung up by that chain I presume?” she sneers. He doesn’t respond which tells her that’s exactly what he expected him to do. She laughs again and slowly shakes her head. “Amateur hour. That’s what he called your outfit, did you know that?”

“I got him here didn’t I?”

Corrie takes great satisfaction in the hurt tone she can hear from him.

“Yeah and what did you do? You lost him. If you’d done the proper research you’d have known that keeping him here wouldn’t have worked. Back in Berlin after SHIELD apprehended him, he was kept in a state of the art cell within a cell. That’s how dangerous they thought he was and he _still_ managed to escape so I’m sure your pathetic attempt here was just child’s play for him, a training exercise. Which means that he’s more than likely down here somewhere and you have no idea of where. He knows what you did to me, so he’ll be looking for you. I’d be very worried right about now.” 

She yelps when he grabs her hair and hauls her to her feet. He throws her away from him and she staggers and crashes against the wall. As she turns, he’s in front of her and her eyes go wide when he slams her against the wall again, the back of her head bouncing painfully off the concrete. He wraps a hand around her throat and this time he keeps his body carefully angled away to prevent another knee attack. His expression is grimly determined as he tightens his grip.

“Maybe you’ll be an excellent bargaining chip. If he’s still around here somewhere like you think, perhaps he’ll know that you’re down here and he’ll come to rescue you. I’m sure he’ll be willing to give himself up in exchange for you living?”

“He won’t bargain with you and I don’t expect him to make an exception just for me,” she tells him. “Just give it up. Let me go and we can walk out of here. No one else gets hurt.”

“Not going to happen sweetheart,” he whispers and he tightens his grip even more and she feels herself begin to choke

“Then you won’t get out of here alive.” Her voice is quiet and hoarse.

“They have to find me first,” he whispers against her ear.

“I’m sure Rory knows how to…” She closes her eyes, the edges of her vision going dark as her body begins to react to the lack of oxygen. “Any minute now there will be people coming through the door …and you won’t stand a chance.” Another pause. She can feel darkness creeping in. “And they’ll take you out …and all of those ambitious grandiose plans you’ve harboured will have… come to.. nothing.”

She makes a tiny little gasping sound as he lifts her up til the tips of her boots barely scrape the floor.

“Then when they do they’ll find your corpse first,” he hisses.

She fights him with everything that she has, self-preservation mode firmly engaged but he’s too strong, too heavy and she’s too tired. She feels her body go into panic mode as her survival instinct kicks in but her vision begins to go grey. She scratches at his wrists, tries to hit out at his face but he's careful. His grip tightens and she knows she doesn’t have much longer. She feels tears fill her eyes, slide out as her eyes begin to close, the fight leaking out of her, her body beginning to weaken and shut down.

* * *

The kitchen is empty.

Sam stands in the centre of the room and he looks around in confusion and then at Fury who stands beside him.

“Where’d they go?” he demands and he watches the other operatives move around him, weapons at the ready, searching. He presses the comm in his ear. “Any sign of Ms Harris outside? What about Donoghue? Corrie, do you read me?” he asks as he receives a flood of ‘negatives’ from others situated around the estate and silence from Corrie.

“They can’t have vanished into thin air,” Fury mutters.

“Rory mentioned something about a second secret basement. Not the one in the building plans but another. We didn’t get to find out where. She was going to show us where before all hell broke loose.”

“So we ask her.”

“Corrie won’t like her being back in here so close to everything,” Sam warns and Fury sends him an arch look.

“Who’s in charge here?”

* * *

Sam watches Rory being brought back into the kitchen. She’s pale, trembling, eyes wide. He goes towards her and sees how she looks at him and then around the already busy room. Searching for him.

“We need your help…”

Sam watches her uncover the touch pad. His shoulders sag when he realises that it’s code-protected. “Damn it,” he whispers. He glances at Fury. “It could be anything…”

“Let me try something,” Fury volunteers. Sam takes a step back as he moves towards the touch pad and watches somewhat tentatively as he keys in six numbers. Everyone watches as the touch pad glows green and a door is revealed, sliding open.

“His date of birth. It’s always got to be about him.” Fury confirms. He’s about to say something else when they hear the muffled sound of a gunshot.

* * *

They move rapidly, silently. Alert. Watchful. Sam is at the front of the team. He pauses when he sees the bodies and an open doorway to his right and he has a very bad feeling about who’s responsible.

He sees Bucky kneeling down in the dimly lit room. Corrie is in his arms. At the sound of footsteps he stiffens, grabs the weapon beside his knee and aims it in their direction in the time it takes Sam to take a breath.

“Hey! It’s us, the good guys, remember?” Sam retorts, a hand going up palm outwards.

Bucky stares at him for a long second, his face hard, eyes cold and Sam gets the strangest sense of déjà vu before he slowly and deliberately places the gun back on the ground beside him.

“We need a medic,” he tells him instead, returning his attention to Corrie.

Sam looks behind him to the operative behind him, “You heard the man,” he tells him. He moves further into the room and he takes in the two corpses sprawled nearby.

“What happened here?” he asks him. Bucky ignores him as he helps Corrie to a half sitting position. She’s beginning to stir.

“Bucky?”

This time he looks at him. His face is battered, bruised and bloodied. Determined.

“What the hell happened here?” he demands again and the glance the soldier sends the corpses is dismissive.

“They got in my way,” he replies.

* * *

She’s vaguely aware that she’s falling. She hits the floor, collapsing in a boneless heap. Darkness beckons. Deep, velvety. Quiet. Welcoming.

On the edge she hears something, a thump? A bang? She’s not sure. She begins to fade again.

Running footsteps. A voice. She can hear it but it sounds so far away. Muffled. She’s so tired. Needs to sleep.

“Corrie…hey…hey…don’t you go anywhere!” A voice pulls her from that deeper depths of the blessed darkness. Familiar somehow. Urgent. Scared? She feels hands grasp her shoulders and give her a gentle shake.

“C’mon sweetheart, open your eyes for me,” the same voice cajoles and one of those hands slides under the back of her neck, supporting her head, giving her another little shake.

_Sweetheart? Who’s calling her sweetheart?_

It’s enough to make her open her eyes and look drowsily into anxious blue grey ones. One bruised. She knows him doesn’t she? She manages to frown, that face is achingly familiar but bruised and bloody. He’s going to have a spectacular black eye in the morning and is that blood smearing the side of his face? 

“Bu…Bucky? Where?... How?” she mumbles in confusion, her voice a low rasp in her throat. Her head hurts. Everything _really_ hurts.

She blinks sleepily as his whole demeanour then changes, he goes stiff, defensive with one arm around her shoulders, the other…she sees the gun in his hand, aimed. Until she hears another voice. Is that Sam? She’s not completely sure as fatigue slides pervasively through her entire body, almost succeeding in dragging her under again. She can hear Bucky tell someone something about a medic and she wonders briefly who the medic is for.

Sam is demanding answers. She recognises the tone of his voice. He wants to know what happened. Bucky tells him that someone got in his way. Who?

“Hey…don’t you go to sleep on me now,” he murmurs and she gasps slightly when he draws her up until she’s sitting more upright and he hugs her. She lets him for a moment, thinking it feels rather nice until memories begin to flood back in. She pushes against his chest in panic.

“Where’s Patrick?” Her eyes skitter all over the room and she sees him lying close by. His head is haloed by blood. It’s then she notices that there are more people in the room.

“Are you okay?,” Sam goes to her, crouching down beside her, eyes wide with worry.

“Where’s Rory?” she demands, her voice no more than a croak.

“She’s fine. She’s safe,” another voice tells her and Nick Fury comes into view.

“You took… your damn… time,” Corrie murmurs and then begins to close her eyes.

“Corrie…” Bucky’s voice. Still worried. 

Slowly Corrie opens her eyes and she looks at him. “You called me sweetheart,” she murmurs. Her eyes begin to close again, still feeling incredibly drowsy.

“Yeah well, sue me,” he mutters “Hey, listen to me, don’t close your eyes.” He gives her another gentle shake which makes her open her eyes and frown at him.

“I wish you’d stop doing that,” she mutters.

“Then keep your eyes open. You need to be checked over, a medic’s coming,” he tells her.

“Ditto,” she answers, focusing on his face again and seeing the bruises and the blood.

“What the hell did they do to you?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

She huffs out a sigh that’s almost a laugh and slumps against Bucky again, every last drop of energy draining out of her.

“Hey…Corrie….”

“Damn it, Buck, she’s still got a bullet in her chest!” Sam exclaims and Corrie feels herself being sat upright again.

“What?” Bucky's voice. He sounds agitated.

Hands are touching her, prodding her. Checking her over. She’d push them out of the way but she’s just too damned tired.

“The vest took it. God. Help me get it off her,” Bucky instructs. She can barely sit up, as she hears the rasp of Velcro fasteners being pulled apart and the Kevlar being lifted over her head.

“I need to check…let me check…” He sounds worried and Corrie looks down as he smooths a hand over the front of her shirt.

“No blood. Thank God…”

“Vest took it.” Sam’s voice again.

“I hurt. All over,” she tells them.

“We’re gonna get you to the hospital, get you properly checked over.”

It’s then that the medic appears and both men watch as he does a preliminary examination. Sam looks at Bucky, he sees how he’s regarding Corrie with a deep frown on his face.

“You need to know….Katie’s in the hospital,” he tells him, putting a hand on his shoulder and he sees how Bucky looks at him. “The latest update suggests that she’ll make it.” He feels his shoulders sag slightly. “And you also need to thank Jason back at the complex because we didn’t know you had another bug in your arm til he told us.”

“I kinda figured he’d do the right thing once someone realised I was missing.” He glances over his shoulder at the corpse of Jonathan Kelly. He looks back when he hears Corrie moan to see her pushing the medic away, telling him that she’s fine. He goes to her, aware of Sam doing the same.

“Hey…hey…what do you think you’re doing?” Bucky murmurs.

“I need to get on my feet. I’m fine, I just need to get up off the floor.” Her voice is husky behind the oxygen mask which she then takes off. He looks to the medic who looks a little fed up but he gives his permission with a brief nod.

“How about we help?” Sam volunteers and between the two of them, they lift her onto her feet, both keeping an arm around her as she struggles to remain upright. Her head spins and she sways and she turns even paler than before.

“We need a gurney,” Bucky mentions and the looks Corrie sends him is positively venomous.

“There’s no need, I can walk,” she informs him, her voice turning decidedly chilly.

“Then let us help with that too,” Sam intervenes. She looks between them both.

“Do I have a choice?”

The two men exchange a look.

“No, I can’t say that you do,” Sam replies.

* * *

She sits in the back of the ambulance a short while later and allows the paramedic to take care of her. She holds an ice pack to her cheek. Already she can feel her left eye beginning to swell. There’s a couple of butterfly stitches in her forehead, apparently framing a spectacular looking bump. Rory sits beside her, quiet, a blanket wrapped around her. She can barely look at her and Corrie doesn’t blame her.

“You okay sweetheart?” Corrie asks her, her voice quiet, husky. Rory nods but Corrie recognises the wide-eyed hypervigilance, how she trembles ever so slightly. It’s been one hell of a night. She tries not to shiver in the cold and instead focuses on the comings and goings of the enormous house. She’s watched the body bags being wheeled out knowing one of them contains her ex-husband. If Sam hadn’t got Rory out of the kitchen, she doesn’t know what would’ve happened, except that Patrick would’ve used them both as bargaining chips to facilitate his escape. It makes her nauseous just thinking about it. She knows it was Bucky who shot Patrick. It couldn’t have been anyone else.

“Hey you.”

Nick Fury comes into view. He regards her for a moment.

“You look like you’ve been in a fight,” he comments. It’s Corrie’s turn to shrug, wincing at the same time.

“I would say you should see the other guy but you already have.”

“It could’ve been worse. Thank God it wasn’t,” he replies calmly.

“Where’s Bucky?” she asks.

“On his way to the hospital, he’ll be checked over and he’ll probably need to see his niece. Which is where you should be, getting checked over,” Fury responds. Corrie shakes her head.

“I’ve already been checked over. I’ll be okay.”

“Your bell was rung good and proper tonight Corrie, you need those ribs x-rayed so get yourself checked out and that’s an order. You _both_ need to be checked over.” He sees how Rory’s eyes go wide. Corrie does too.

“We’ll get checked out together. At the same time. She doesn’t leave my sight. Non-negotiable,” Corrie tells Fury.

“Wouldn’t dream of saying otherwise. Let me know when you’re done and I’ll send a car to bring you both back to the complex. Another order.” His gaze sweeps over the pair of them before he heads away.

* * *

The sun is rising.

Corrie has been poked and prodded, stitched up and x-rayed. She has a spectacular deep purple bruise in the centre of her sternum which hurts each time she tries to take a deep enough breath. She’s covered in bruises but fortunately no bones are broken. The doctors wanted to keep her in overnight for observation but she refused and she signed the relevant forms understanding that she’s leaving against medical advice.

Instead they’re both given instructions to get some rest and for Corrie to take the prescribed painkillers that she’s carrying in a small paper sack. There’s a car waiting for them outside of the hospital but there’s something Corrie needs to do first.

The hospital floor they’ve been directed to is quiet at this hour. Rory tightens her grip on her mother’s hand as they slowly make their way down the corridor as they search for him. The nightgown has gone and in its place is a pink sweatsuit a nurse managed to find from the children’s ward. The colour clashes horribly with her red hair but she’s glad to be out of that nightgown and into something warmer and far more comfortable.

* * *

Bucky is seated in a waiting area which is at the end of the corridor. He’s kind of sprawled in a chair, wearing a jacket one of the team loaned him. It’s partially zipped and she catches a glimpse of the grubby t-shirt underneath. A baseball cap is pulled low over his eyes and his arms are folded across his chest. He doesn’t move a muscle until she sits down on the seat at his left. To all intents and purposes he looks like he’s catching forty winks but Corrie knows better than that.

“Hey. I looked for you in the emergency department.” She keeps her voice low. His eyes open immediately and tick her way.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was getting checked over, just got discharged with orders to rest and recuperate and take these.” She lifts the paper sack from her lap for a moment “Which I won’t. How about you?”

She takes in the bruising that’s beginning to blossom around his left eye, the cut at his temple which has also been treated with butterfly stitches and taped over. She also notices that an attempt has been made to clean the blood away from the side of his face.

“I’m okay. Accelerated healing, remember that?”

“We’re a matching pair, minus the accelerated healing of course,” she comments and this time he turns his head more fully and looks at her. His eyes scan her face for a moment or two, widening slightly at the sight of her shiner.

“Damn,” he murmurs.

“It’s not the first one he’s given me.”

“But it’s the last.”

“Thanks to you. You saved my life. I owe you.”

He looks away again, gives his head a little shake.

“No you don’t.”

“I do and you know it. I won’t forget it.” Her voice is still soft and once more he turns his head and he looks at her, really looks at her for what feels like an age.

“You really don’t. You have your daughter back in your life, that’s what’s important.”

“Bucky, what you…”

“No…don’t say it. I was doing my job.”

“You were kidnapped. My ex was going to give you to someone higher up. Did you ever learn who it could’ve been?”

“No.”

“Jonathan Kelly?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” The abruptness of his tone tells her a lot more but she decides not to push it.

“How’s Katie doing?”

“She’s sleeping. Docs think she’ll pull through, no thanks to me.” He frowns.

“This was not your fault.”

“If we hadn’t made contact, she wouldn’t have been put in harm’s way by a lunatic who wanted revenge for something I didn’t really have anything to do with. If we hadn’t met then she would about to open her bookstore to get ready for the Christmas rush. She isn’t and I don’t know when if ever she will be and that _is_ entirely my fault,” he retorts.

“Hey,” she begins and reaches across and puts her hand on his wrist. He freezes.

“It’s been one hell of a couple of days. Why don’t you come back with me and Rory and you can rest up, get some sleep, come back later on?” she suggests. Bucky shakes his head once more.

“No…I mean, I’ll come back to the complex later but I have to see Katie and talk to her. Apologise.” Corrie stares at him some more and she quietly sighs.

“Fine. Do you want someone to call by later, pick you up when you’re ready?” He shakes his head again.

“You’re not going to walk back.”

“I won’t. I don’t want to talk about it anymore right now. Go spend some time with your kid. I’ll be in touch,” he tells her and just like that the conversation is over.

“I’m not going to forget about this Bucky. I’m not going to forget that you saved my life, mine and Rory’s.” Before he can react to that, she gets to her feet, reaches out a hand for her daughter and together they head out.

* * *

He quietly sighs again as he’s left alone with his thoughts. He aches. Well actually, no, he hurts. He’s realised there’s a difference. Having a cattle prod poked in his ribs really fucking hurts. Not as bad as having a halo apparatus fastened to his head and having God knows how many volts throbbing through his brain but damn close. Having the butt of a rifle slammed into his head hurt too. Someone getting the jump on him hurt even more. That and the fact that a person would beat the shit out of his niece because of who _he_ was. An innocent whose only crime was to be related to him. Well justice was done as far as he’s concerned. There was only ever going to be one outcome to that discussion and he doesn’t regret it. Not for a minute.

The cattle prod he collected after managing to get himself unhooked came in real handy afterwards. It’d been a good workout, to be able to let loose like that. Four against one. It was almost like old times. He’s left them alive but it’d been a close call. He’d been angry.

Hearing Corrie’s voice. Trying to reason. Hearing his. Threatening her. Neither of them noticed him slide into the room. Seeing Donoghue with his hand around Corrie’s throat is burned into his memory. His own reaction to seeing it had been instinctive. See the threat and neutralise it and that’s what he did. He got to punch him in the face before…

His memory shies away from what happened after that. See the threat and neutralise. Some aspects of the Soldier will never be completely erased, he realises.

Afterwards she’d been so still that for one horrible moment he thought he’d been too late, then she’d thankfully opened her eyes and looked at him and wanted to know where he’d appeared from. At least that’s what he thinks she was trying to ask.

She says that she owes him. He thinks that she doesn’t. He had a job to do and he did it. He made her a promise and he helped keep it. He always keeps his promises.

But he aches. He hurts. He knows it’ll pass. Accelerated healing and all of that and he’s so goddamned tired. He feels like he could sleep for a week, a month even but he needs to see Katie first.

* * *

The man sees the redhead with the spectacular black eye as she walks along the corridor, a young girl with the same shade of red hair holding onto her hand, looking somewhat incongruous in a bright pink sweat suit. He wonders at how the woman came by the shiner and how horribly that colour clashes with the child’s hair.

It’s early, too early for visiting hours really but he hasn’t been able to stay away for very long. This time it was for a couple of hours sleep in his own bed, a hot shower and a change of clothes. He called by Katie’s apartment and picked up some clothes and other belongings for her. The forensic people were all done with it and he was given permission to enter and collect what he needed. It’s been a fraught twenty four hours from the moment he’d received that awful phone call informing him that his only child had been attacked and was on her way to the hospital. He’s paced the floor since then, waiting, worrying and drinking very substandard coffee as he waited for updates about her condition. It’d taken a little while but eventually, t _hankfully_ she’d stabilised.

Right now he has a holdall containing her essentials in one hand and a Go Cup of good hot coffee in the other. When she wakes up, he’s going to talk her into staying with him for a week or two to recuperate. It’ll give him the opportunity to fuss over her even though he knows she’ll hate it. He won’t take no for an answer this time, she’s his only child and getting that phone call at the crack of dawn had scared a good few years off him. He can get temporary staff in to cover her shifts at the bookstore, hell he’ll even go in and cover them himself if he has to.

He pauses when he sees the young man slouched down in a chair in the waiting room, arms folded across his chest and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. He looks like he’s here for the long haul too. He wonders who it is he’s here to see. He crosses the floor and sits down beside him.

“Corrie…I already said…” His voice is low, tired sounding.

“I don’t know who Corrie is. My name is Phillip.” He watches as the young man cracks an eye open and looks his way. And stares at him. He unfolds his arms and goes to move. Phillip’s eyes also go wide as recognition slams into him. His mouth drops open in shock.

“Uncle James?” he breathes.


	12. When Worlds Collide.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky encounters another family member who will not take no for an answer.
> 
> The team deal with the events of the previous chapter. 
> 
> From now on in, the story will begin to move in a different direction. Initially it was going to end after Rory's rescue but I began to realise that there's more to the story here, more to be told, something to be explored further.   
> A story of bonds and connections, of creating them and understanding them.   
> So an idea began and off I went. 
> 
> All errors are my own and unintentional. Would love to hear what you think.

**When Worlds Collide.**

“I’m sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else.”

Phillip Barnes watches the man get to his feet and hightail it out of the waiting room like the hounds of hell are on his heels. He places the bag and his coffee cup on the floor by his feet and he follows. By the time he emerges from the waiting room, the man is halfway down the corridor and not showing any signs of slowing down.

“Wait! Please…” he calls, giving chase. He doesn’t give any indication that he’s heard him but Phillip catches up to him at the entrance. He grabs onto his left arm and realises that it feels different, it’s definitely not flesh. The man freezes but doesn’t turn around.

“If you’re not my Uncle James then you’re a living breathing clone. Please. Let me look at you.”

“Not a good idea.”

“For who? Just let me see you and then I’ll let you go about your business,” Phillip beseeches, his heart thumping hard in his chest. He’s still holding onto his arm and he lets go of him as the man gives a deep sigh and his head goes down for a moment. Then he turns around to look at him, removing the baseball cap at the same time. He meets Phillip’s gaze defiantly. Phillip’s eyes widen when he takes in the blue grey eyes, the jawline, the short dark hair. The bruises too, no doubt.

“Oh my God, it _is_ you. I’ve looked at pictures of you often enough to know. I’m right aren’t I? You’re Uncle James,” he breathes. For a moment he doesn’t think the man is going to answer.

“My name _is_ James Buchanan Barnes.”

“My dad’s elder brother, but you…”

“Were classed as missing, presumed killed in action in 1944? I know. Yes. That’s me.”

“But how…” Phillip’s voice is soft with disbelief.

“Did I survive?” Bucky answers, “The same way Steve Rogers did for seventy years.”

Phillip gapes at him. “In the ice? But you were missing before that happened…how?”

“I can’t explain now but you’re right, I am who you think I am. I’m going to get out of here and you’ll never see me again.” He turns again and without thinking, Phillip grabs his arm once more and again Bucky freezes.

“Please. Don’t leave like this. It’s just a shock seeing you, that’s all. Don’t go. Why don’t we go back to the waiting room and talk for a while? I’m Phillip by the way, Charlie’s son. My daughter is here, Katie...”

“I know who you are. Katie filled me in. You inherited the book store from Charlie and Katie inherited it from you.”

“You do? You’ve been in touch with Katie? She didn’t say.”

Bucky turns back to look at his nephew. God it sounds so crazy in his head. His _nephew_. His family. Phillip’s hair is darker than his and threaded heavily with silver but he has the same eyes. Buchanan blue eyes, inherited from his mom’s side of the family according to legend.

“Yeah, I have and she didn’t tell you because I asked her not to.” He then sighs, all of a sudden exhausted to the bone by the whole affair. “Look, it’s a crazy story. Maybe you should ask her about it, tell her I said it was okay.” He looks away, over Phillip’s shoulder and down the corridor. “I gotta go. I heard that Katie is okay, I wanted to see her but I can’t stick around.”

“I’d really like it if you would. I’d like to talk to you; you’re family.”

“No, no I’m not. You don’t know the first thing about me and I don’t know all that much about you, either. Trust me, it’s better we don’t get better acquainted, for everyone.”

“You’re just going to walk away from Katie? Just like that?”

“She’s in here because of me so yeah, I’m just going to walk away, just like that. Take care of her.”

Bucky turns and leaves and this time Phillip doesn’t stop him.

* * *

Corrie can’t sleep so she’s given up trying. Rory has finally given in to exhaustion and is asleep in bed beside her. She’s wearing a t-shirt of Corrie’s, the Pepto Bismol pink sweatsuit long since discarded. It had taken her a long while to drift off to sleep but finally she did. Corrie wishes that she could do the same but she still has a mild headache and it hurts to lie down. She should probably take the prescribed painkillers, at least then she’d get some sleep but she doesn’t trust what they’ll do to her so has decided not to and she doesn’t want to be zonked out that she won’t hear Rory if she needs her so instead she’s semi-reclined against a pile of thick pillows, trying to be comfortable enough to get some rest. She looks down at her daughter and again feels like she’s in a dream of some kind, that she finally has her girl back after seven long years. There’s so much to do now, least of all go on a clothes buying trip with her which she’ll have to do soon. After so long, the prospect of parenting her daughter again is a daunting thought. She doesn’t really know her anymore, doesn’t really know what makes her tick. What if she screws it all up? Rory doesn’t need that on top of everything else she’s gone through over the years. She takes a slow deep breath which makes her wince and she noisily exhales. One step at a time. One day at a time. She’ll figure this out. They both will.

Carefully, cautiously, Corrie slides out of bed, pausing as Rory moves a little, murmuring in her sleep. She doesn’t realise she’s holding her breath until she quietly exhales. She needs a cup of tea. She needs to think about what happened today. She needs to decompress.

She leaves her bedroom door open as she walks slowly and stiffly to the kitchen to make her tea and is a little surprised to see Bucky come into the living area. He looks a little…she wants to say frazzled but that’s not quite it. He looks stressed. She watches him as he heads to his room, removing his jacket and his cap as he does. Tea forgotten, she decides to follow him. She pauses in the doorway to his room and he turns to close the door and startles a little when he sees her standing there.

“Now’s not a good time, Corrie,” he tells her. She hears the tension in his voice.

“What’s the matter?” she asks instead.

“There’s nothing the matter,” he answers and she just raises an eyebrow in response.

“Damn it, just for once…” he sighs.

“Just for once what, Bucky? Mind my own business? Leave you to brood over something that’s obviously happened. Is it Katie? Let me help if I can, even if it’s just to listen to you while you talk it out.”

Bucky slowly shakes his head.

“You know what? I’m beat. Like you said, it’s been on hell of a couple of days and I really don’t want to talk right now so I’m going to hit the sack and sleep. Goodnight.” He carefully closes the door in her face and the rejection, such as it is, stings.

* * *

She makes tea for herself and heads to the living area. It’s blessedly silent. With a quiet groan she gingerly lowers herself down on the couch and then sighs. She takes a sip of her tea and winces slightly against her sore throat. Another memento of the day she’s just had. She turns her head when she hears the main door to the complex open again and she watches Sam come in. He pauses when he sees her.

“Damn,” he murmurs, approaching her.

“I’ll be okay,” she answers. He sits down beside her and he looks at her.

“How are you feeling?” he enquires, his voice low, concerned.

“Right now? Sore but I’ll be okay in time. I’ll heal.”

“Good. I need to say something to you and you need to listen to me.” Sam’s voice is mild but Corrie braces herself for what’s coming. “You disobeyed a direct order back at that house. Twice. ” His tone is non-accusatory but the message is clear. “I remember saying to you the moment I tell you to get the hell out of there, you get the hell out. I should’ve realised you’d ignore it.”

“He wanted me, Sam. He thought he had Bucky and he wanted me out of the way by whatever means necessary. He would’ve hurt you or worse to achieve that.”

“You think I can’t take care of myself? I thought you’d read my files?”

“And I have and I know you can but I would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to you because of me.”

“It wasn’t your decision to make Corrie...” Sam looks away for a moment before he looks back at her and his eyes take in the bruises again. “I’m sorry.”

Corrie blinks in confusion. “Whatever for?”

“I shouldn’t have left you in there with him. I should’ve stayed with you and kicked his ass. I should’ve protected you and I didn’t and he just about damn well killed you.” His voice is heavy with disgust.

“Listen to me Sam. I asked you to protect my daughter. I asked you to get her out, no matter what and you did. The rest of it doesn’t matter.”

“It would have if you hadn’t made it out of there.”

“And you know what would’ve happened if you’d stayed. You were the best person to get Rory safely out of there, probably the only person.”

“You’re no good to anyone dead, least of all to that little girl sleeping in your room right now. I shouldn’t have left you alone to deal with him, not after what you told us.”

“You kept your promise to protect my daughter. That’s what was the most important thing.”

Sam regards her with sombre eyes. “Yeah. Well. The next time I give you an order, you listen, okay?”

Corrie regards him for a long moment. “Okay.”

“Where have you been?” she continues.

“Next door de-briefing. Answering questions. Report writing. Dotting I’s and crossing T’s. Is Bucky around?”

“He just got back a short while ago. Fair warning though, he’s not in the best of moods right now.”

“Well given his niece was attacked and he was held captive and beaten black and blue, I’m not surprised.”

“It’s more than that Sam. He was pissed off about something, nothing to do with being held captive. More than likely it has something to do with Katie.” She sighs quietly. “I’m sure he’ll tell me in time.”

“Or you’ll annoy him until he does. You’re good at that.” Sam grins and despite herself, Corrie smiles back. He does have a point there. He then points at her tea cup.

“Finish your tea and then get some rest. I assume that’s an order you _will_ listen to?”

Corrie slowly lifts the cup in a parody of a toast.

“Sure thing, Sam,” she replies.

A while later and Corrie heads back to her room, where Rory still sleeps. For a moment she once again envies her her slumber. She climbs back into the bed and she slowly and carefully leans against the headboard and the pile of pillows carefully arranged to support her injuries and once more she listens to the silence.

* * *

It’s later in the morning when she resurfaces and wakes up to an empty bed. Panic makes her sit bolt upright, belatedly remember her aches and pains. More carefully she climbs out of bed and heads out of her room to see Rory in the living room. She’s curled up in a corner of the couch watching something on the tv. As Corrie gets closer, she notices that she’s just staring at the screen. Her stillness suggests that she’s not really taking in the cartoon show playing onscreen. That she’s seeing something completely different in her mind.

“Hey,” she greets, slowly sitting down onto the seat beside her. She looks at the screen, “What are you watching?” She looks back at her daughter as she asks and sees Rory slowly shrug. Her eyes are vacant, her expression curiously blank.

“I have no idea,” she murmurs. Corrie looks around. There’s no sign of anyone else, doors are closed and it’s quiet. No doubt everyone is still sleeping.

“Have you been awake long?”

“Couple of hours,” Rory answers. Her voice is quiet, spaced out.

“No sign of anyone else around? No Sam?” Another slow shake of the head.

“You want to talk about it?” Corrie enquires. She watches as Rory slowly turns her head and looks at her.

“Talk about what?” Rory asks, her voice becoming cautious. Corrie shrugs.

“I don’t know. Whatever you want to talk about. How you’re here on the couch staring at the tv screen?” she replies. Rory lets out a tired, ragged sigh that shakes her whole body.

“I had a nightmare earlier. That… _he_ …was chasing me through that house. He was so angry.” Her eyes widen. Corrie doesn’t need to ask her who she means by he. She’s had similar dreams herself, a lot of them after she’d left hospital in London.

“He’s never going to hurt you again, you know that, right?”

Rory looks away and at the same time blinks away threatening tears. She nods.

“The man with the metal arm shot him. Killed him. The one at the hospital.”

Corrie wonders how she knows that. Then she realises that she would’ve seen the body bags being wheeled out of the house and joined the dots, overheard her telling Bucky that he’d saved their lives.

“His name is James but we call him Bucky.”

“He saved your life.”

“And yours too, so did Sam. They’re both good guys.”

“I know. I know all of that. _He_ wasn’t though, he was bad, through and through.”

“Your father.”

“Yeah. He killed Alex. Lost his temper and he beat her. Threw her to the ground and she hit her head and didn’t get up again.”

“You saw that?” Another nod.

“I’m sorry that you did. You liked Alex.”

Rory looks at her again. “She was the best. When the Blip happened it was just me and her in that house. She took care of me and she was so cool, so kind. Then everything changed back and he returned.” Her expression twists as she remembers.

“He beat her a lot.”

“Yeah. Yelled at her. And me. Smacked me around too when he thought I was getting too…”

“Independent?” Another nod. “He doesn’t like it when women answer him back.”

“So what happens now?” Rory asks.

Corrie lets out a long sigh. “In a day or two you’re going to have to talk about all of this to the local authorities, various people. About what you knew, what you saw, what happened and I’ll be with you when you do.”

“And after that?”

“What do you want to happen?” Corrie responds.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it right now.”

“So we don’t. We’ll take each day as it comes. The next few days are going to be rough but once we begin to find our rhythm then we get to know each other again. That’s all. The rest? We’ll deal as and when. I’m just glad to have you back again.” There’s a pause as they look at each other. “But top of the list is getting you some clothes. You’ve literally got what you came here in. The house is sealed off as a crime scene so you won’t be able to pick up anywhere from there for the time being.”

Rory shakes her head.

“I don’t want anything from there,” she tells her and Corrie is surprised.

“Nothing at all?”

“He chose everything that I wore. I wasn’t allowed jeans or trousers. It was dresses or skirts, stuff like that. He didn’t like me wearing anything he thought was unsuitable so I don’t want anything from there. When he was gone, Alex bought me jeans, leggings and I loved them but when he came back, he made her get rid of them all.” Then her eyes go wide “But if you don’t approve of them either…”

“Sweetheart, I used to dress you in jeans and cute little dungarees in all sorts of colours when you were little. If you want to wear them, then you can wear them. Anything you want.” She watches Rory’s eyes slowly widen.

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I know you’re eleven and all but part of any future shopping deal includes me tagging along too. I’ve missed doing that with you.”

Rory smiles for the first time. “I’d really like that,” she confirms and Corrie smiles back.

“Then whenever you’re ready, it’s a date.”

* * *

He’s sitting by her bedside the next time she opens her eyes.

For a long moment they just stare at each other and then Bucky slowly somewhat tiredly smiles at her. He knows what he said to Phillip about staying away but he’d lain awake worrying about her and after a few fruitless hours of tossing and turning, decided he did need to see her after all. Entering the hospital floor, tentatively checking the waiting room, her room to see whether she had company and when he saw that she didn’t, he took the empty chair beside her bed and waited. Nobody bothered him.

“Hey kiddo,” he greets.

Katie’s answering smile is equally slow. She’s black and blue, a bandage wound around her head holding a thick piece of gauze in place.

“Hey Bucky,” she replies, her voice tired and somewhat faint.

“The docs say you should make a full recovery. I’m glad to hear it. How are you doing?”

“I’m sore and everything takes twice as long to do, even thinking. You look nearly as bad as I do. Have you slept at all?”

Bucky’s expression is rueful as he gently touches the stitched up cut at his temple.

“Some. Good thing this is only temporary. You’ll get better and be on your feet in no time.” His gaze drops down to her hand on the coverlet, the tubes still attached to various veins.

“This was all my fault and I’m sorry,” he begins. He then leans across and puts a hand over hers and makes eye contact again. “The man who hurt you. He won’t do that again. He used you to get at me and that was inexcusable. He’s been dealt with.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she tells him.

“Oh it was. If not for me, you wouldn’t have crossed paths with him in the first place.”

“You don’t know that!”

“I do. Without a shadow of doubt. He pretty much told me so.”

“Who was he?”

“The brother of a man I once knew, or I should say, knew me. Way before everything that’s happened here. Remember I told you about being brainwashed and…tortured? His brother was connected to that, he was part of a team that controlled me at the time and he died in Africa and his brother blamed Steve. Steve’s no longer around for him to get his revenge on so he thought he’d turn that blame onto me. Using you. He was the guy in the cemetery.”

“He asked me a lot of questions about you. He was really interested in the photos I have of you at home. Like, _really_ interested and when I wouldn’t answer them, he…” She bites her lip and frowns slightly as she remembers. Bucky just watches her.

“There will be more people like him with a score to settle with me in the future. People more organised, more ruthless and more determined and they won’t hesitate to use you or other members of the family against me as leverage. What happened to you is my worst nightmare come to life and I can’t and won’t put you at risk like that again.”

Katie just stares at him, her eyes going wide as she understands what he’s trying to say.

“So that’s it? The first sign of trouble and you’re leaving? You’re quitting on me?”

“It’s for your own safety.”

“Don’t I get to have a say in that decision? You don’t speak for me Bucky. You don’t get to make that decision for me. I’m your family, you don’t get to walk away just because we hit a bump in the road.”

“A bump I created,” he reminds her and her expression turns even more fierce.

“Trouble came looking for you, not the other way around. What happened to me was Jack’s fault or whatever the hell his name is, not yours.”

Bucky pulls his hand away and rubs it over his face. “I can’t deal with this right now Katie, I’m sorry. The thought of you going through something like this again…” He shakes his head and he goes to stand up.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me!” she hisses and Bucky freezes as she grabs his wrist. He stares at her as he slowly retakes his seat.

“We’re a family whether you like it or not. There are more of us out there who would love to get to know you if you’d give us the opportunity. We Barnes folk are tough stock, nothing phases us, especially not a soldier returning home after eighty years looking like he’s barely thirty five. You hit a road bump then we all navigate around it or through it together, it’s what families do.”

“Katie, you have no idea of what I’ve done. You’ve already had a taste of the chaos knowing me can bring. It damn well nearly killed you.”

“If you leave, I’ll tell the family about you, that you’re alive. You think _I’m_ headstrong? You haven’t met my father yet.”

“Actually I have.” He sees how Katie goggles at this.

“When?”

“Very early this morning in the waiting room. He recognised me straight away too. Guess it’s true what you said about the whole family growing up knowing about me. He’s gonna have a few questions for you the next time he sees you.”

“Then what’s the problem here? My father is a good man. They’re _all_ good people and they will rally around you and protect you in an instant if you need them to. You come from a strong solid family.”

Bucky just stares at her. He tries to imagine having something he’s gone without for eight decades. A family. A support network. Something normal in the frankly chaotic universe that is his existence. As much as the thought of it appeals, he pushes it away.

“I can’t put any of you in harm’s way Katie, I just can’t.” He begins to get to his feet again.

“Take care kiddo,” he whispers to her as he leans over and presses a quick kiss on the top of her head and he’s gone.

* * *

He’s back at the complex. He sees Corrie on the couch with her daughter curled up beside her watching something on the tv. He flicks a glance at it as he goes past but he has no idea what it is they’re watching. He then looks down at Corrie and watches how she turns her head and watches him walk by. He doesn’t speak nor does he smile in acknowledgment.

Bucky shrugs off his jacket and pulls off his cap and pulls the fingers of his right hand through his hair. God he’s so tired and he’s aching. He’s bruised to fuck, his ribcage a patchwork of colourful contusions and burn marks. His head throbs mildly in tandem.

“Hey.” He tries not to startle too hard at Corrie’s voice all of sudden right behind him. He doesn’t move as she comes around him to stand in front of him.

“We _are_ a pair, aren’t we?” she muses and he has to admit, they are. She’s black and blue too, her left eye almost swollen shut and an awful shade of crimson and purple. He can see the purplish black bruising that rings her throat and the slight husky tone of her very English voice. He remembers Donoghue’s hand around her throat, lifting her onto her tiptoes, squeezing the life out of her and it was terrifying.

“We are,” he confirms.

“You’ve been to see Katie. How’s she doing?”

For a moment she thinks that he isn’t going to answer. Then he sighs, slowly shakes his head.

“Hey, part of my job here is to make sure that you and Sam are okay. That includes asking you how you’re doing. Your niece was gravely injured in all of this. You took off to see her once everything was okay and you’ve been a little… _spiky_ …since. So this is me, doing my _job_ and asking if you’re okay. If you think that’s annoying then…tough.” 

Bucky blinks in surprise. “Tough?” he echoes.

“Yeah. Tough. You know how persistent I can be when I put my mind to it.”

“Don’t I just…” he sighs in agreement and she tries to bite back a smile which succeeds in making her eyes twinkle a little instead.

“And I would’ve gone to see her myself but I kind of look a little scary right now so I think I’ll wait a little while before I do.”

“Join the looking scary club. We all do, Katie included.” He folds his arms and leans against the kitchen cabinets. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t be seeing Katie anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because it was a bad idea to begin with. Do I have to spell it out to you? It was an experiment, one that failed. The best thing I can do is keep my distance.”

“And was this a mutual decision? No, I can’t imagine that it was. She’s your family Bucky, your blood family. I know it’s a little more complicated than that but they’re yours.”

Bucky turns his head and he looks at her. “I’m gonna crash. See you later I guess,” he tells her and straightens up and she watches him walk away.

* * *

Paperwork. So much damn paperwork. Corrie sighs as she reads through another sheaf of documents, adds a signature, closes the folder it’s contained in and moves it across her desk before pulling another one in front of her. She sneaks a glance at Rory who sits at the end of her desk. She’s watching something on a tablet, pink earphones in place. There’s a very slight smile on her face as she watches whatever it is that’s holding her attention. Corrie is glad that she’s a little more settled today though she’s still loath to let her leave her sight. It’s been rough for both of them. They haven’t managed a full night’s sleep yet and Corrie isn’t expecting that to change any time soon. The nightmares have been rough on her, a time or two she’s woken up screaming and shaking. She’s wearing a pair of jeans with a variety of butterflies embroidered and sequinned down one leg. It’s paired with a plain white t-shirt and a jade green hoodie. A couple of the tech and science geeks had shown up yesterday with bags of preteen girl clothing for Rory; clothes their younger siblings or daughters have outgrown and wondered whether Rory would like them, if they fitted. There were sweats, jeans, leggings, t-shirts, hoodies and sweaters of every colour imaginable. Brand new packs of pyjamas, underwear and socks, sneakers, lace up shoes, boots and slippers of different sizes. Their thoughtfulness and kindness had touched Corrie’s heart.

Her cell phone begins to ring and she frowns mildly as she reaches for it, seeing Katie’s name on the screen. It’s been a few days since Bucky told her that he wasn’t going to see her any more. She casts a quick glance Rory’s way as she answers it.

“Katie?”

There’s a brief silence. 

“Ms Harris?” A male voice. Unsure. Her frown deepens. “I’m sorry to intrude but my name is Phillip Barnes. My daughter is Katie Barnes.”

Which would make him Bucky’s nephew. Corrie goes still as something unidentified tingles along her nervous system. Why would Bucky’s nephew be contacting her? How would he know to contact her?

“Mr Barnes. Is everything okay?”

“Ms Harris, I know that Katie is an acquaintance of yours. That you met through the book store through…unusual circumstances. She’s explained it to me.” Which means he must know about Bucky but she holds her tongue.

“That’s true. How is Katie?” she enquires instead.

“Katie’s fine Ms Harris, she was discharged from hospital yesterday.” Another pause. “I’m wondering whether you could possibly help us.”

Corrie gives pause, wondering what help she could possibly provide, though she could possibly guess.

“If I can.” Her tone is wary.

“I met Bucky at the hospital, after Katie was admitted. At first he denied being my uncle even though I knew exactly who he was. And now he’s decided he doesn’t want to be a part of the family anymore.”

Corrie sits back in her chair and she wonders what she can say to him. So he does know. It would explain Bucky’s spiky mood after returning from the hospital perfectly.

She can sense Phillip’s bewilderment from here.

“I’m not sure what exactly you want me to do, Mr Barnes,” she hedges instead.

“Katie also explained to me that he works with you and that you and he have a good relationship, a bond almost.”

“Well, we work well together…”

“Ms Harris, I remember how my grandmother used to talk about him when I was a boy. How he marched off to war to serve his country thousands of miles away and that he never returned. She didn’t even have a body to mourn over. I remember the stories about him that my father and my aunts would tell, sometimes I was sure they were embellished. My father was sure he saw him in footage from Europe when the UN was bombed several years ago. He was suffering from dementia at the time and later stories claimed that it was someone else who looked like his brother but my dad was insistent that he was alive. We just thought it was one of the many effects of the disease he had. He died eighty years ago, how could it have been him?”

“And then you discovered a few days ago that he was probably right.”

“Was he in Vienna?”

“No. That wasn’t him but he was in Europe at the time. I can’t go into any great details about his circumstances and to be honest, a lot of what he can tell you is his story to tell. I’m sure Katie has told you that while Bucky was in fact alive, he wasn’t able to return to you and he most certainly isn’t the man your family talked about.”

“She did tell me. I just want to meet with him, talk to him, see if I can persuade him that he has a family here, who love him and would really like to welcome him back into the fold again.”

And now Corrie understands.

“You want me to talk to him, try to persuade him to change his mind?”

“Would he listen to you?”

“On that subject? I very much doubt it Mr Barnes. Once he’s made up his mind, he very rarely changes it.”

“Well that’s a family trait there alright. We’re a stubborn bunch.” He sighs somewhat raggedly.

“I understand why he’d be reluctant to get back in touch. Thank you for your honesty Ms Harris.”

Corrie sighs quietly and before she knows it she’s reaching for a notepad and a pen.

“Why don’t you give me a contact number? I’m not going to make you any promises but leave it with me for a few days, let me see what I can come up with, if anything.”

“That would be appreciated, thank you,” Phillip Barnes replies and gives her a number that she scribbles down.


	13. Post Mortem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing the theme of bonds; creating and understanding them.  
> A conversation. A funeral. An understanding. 
> 
> All errors are my own and unintentional

**Post Mortem.**

She stands just inside the entrance to the kitchen and pushes her hands into the pockets of her overcoat. Her eyes take in the overturned furniture, broken shards of pottery, glass and china that litter the marble floor, the thick soles of her boots crunch them further into dust as she makes her way deeper inside. 

Her ex-husband had tossed a literal grenade into the room, such was his lack of concern for the preservation of human life. Maybe it was intended as a distraction device, maybe he truly meant to cause mayhem and loss of life, she isn’t entirely sure. He certainly wasn’t thinking rational by the end. If he ever was.

She looks behind her and sees the open door that leads down to the second basement, a sophisticated network of tunnels and rooms all soundproofed and protected. One room in particular held Bucky for almost twenty four hours. The one her ex pushed her into, with the hook in the ceiling, the chains on the concrete floor and the corpse of Jonathan Kelly alongside it. Cause of death is believed to have been a broken neck. Corrie wonders at that and she plans to ask Bucky to fill her in the moment she sees him again. That and the four injured and unconscious men she’d seen in the corridor outside of the room he was held in. Apparently a cattle prod was discovered nearby. The intel suggests Bucky took them all on and won. She tends to believe it. Right now they’re being forensically taken apart and examined for any further evidence and perhaps a lead on who this mysterious boss is.

Her memories of that room in the basement drift in and out. She remembers being taken there, she remembers how Patrick began to realise, finally that all of his plans were reduced to nothing. She remembers the expression on his face when he’d wrapped a hand around her throat, that he had nothing left to lose. He was always in control, she remembers, but right in that moment as he began to squeeze, she knew it was gone. She fully believed that he intended to kill her right until the moment he wasn’t there anymore.

That’s when it becomes fuzzy around the edges. No matter how hard she tries, all she really remembers is falling. Feeling herself slide into darkness. A muffled explosion and someone talking to her but it sounded far away. Almost like a dream. The far away voice was Bucky. The muffled explosion was actually a gun shot. Her ex-husband is dead and Bucky apparently killed him.

He said earlier that he didn’t want her to see The Soldier in action and maybe this is why. The autopsy said the kill shot was precise, almost clinical. Professional. Bucky knew what he was doing. Of course he would.

* * *

She quietly sighs, wondering why she’s here in the first place. There’s nothing here for her and Rory made her feelings damned clear on the matter. She wants a new start and that includes nothing from this place except, she’s decided, for a handful of books. A subtle crunching sound makes her spin around, her pulse rate increasing, causing her heart to start thumping hard in her chest. She stares at the man and the woman who stand just inside the patio doors and they stare at her with equally wide eyed surprise.

“Who are you?” the man demands. Corrie frowns at his tone.

“I could ask you the same question. I have clearance to be here.” The challenge goes unspoken but it’s clearly heard.

“We’re just here to pick up some belongings…for our daughter’s funeral,” the woman explains, sending a cautious look at her companion. Corrie realises then who she is, who they both are.

“You must be Alex’s parents. I’m so sorry for your loss. My name is Corrie Harris. I’m…”

“Grace’s mother. I’m Charlotte French, Alex was my daughter. This is my husband, Will,” the woman introduces. Corrie guesses her to be in her mid to late fifties, her dark hair styled into a curved bob, streaked iron grey. Her husband looked to be the same age though his hair is more silver in colour and curlier.

“I am. I’m Rory’s mother,” she confirms with a nod. She watches the older couple approach her.

“I knew it. You look very alike. How is she? We called her Grace. Her father insisted that was her name.”

“She’s as well as can be expected.”

“I’m glad. She’s such a sweet girl, Alex doted on her.”

“Rory was very fond of her too. She said they were close. I’m glad she took care of her.”

“She did, she loved her like she was her own.”

Corrie regards the couple.

“How about I walk with you upstairs and we can talk some more?” she suggests.

* * *

“You were married to Patrick?” Charlotte asks as they make their way up the staircase.

“For five years.” Corrie confirms.

And he beat you too.” This time she just nods.

“He did.” She indicates her face “And yeah, this was his handiwork too.” She then takes a deep breath.

“Before that was the day my divorce and petition for sole custody was granted.”

“Alex said he claimed to be a single father, that his wife had died when Grace… _Rory_... was a baby.”

“I suppose it stops any awkward questions. He put me in hospital. I’ve spent almost every single moment since I got out looking for Rory and it was sheer luck that I found her.”

“How did you?” This from Will.

“He hid some business dealings behind your daughter’s name. I didn’t know he’d remarried though I should’ve guessed. The name Alex French came across my radar and I assumed it was male. He hid behind her.”

“Like the coward he was,” Will mutters, moving ahead of them and into the master bedroom before Corrie can stop him.

* * *

She stays in the bedroom while Charlotte goes into the dressing room to choose an outfit for their daughter. Will stays beside the window but she can sense the anger seething beneath the surface. The door to the bathroom is closed, sealed by yellow police tape.

“You didn’t care much for Patrick.” She watches how the man swings around to face her.

“Not at all but it’s not as though I could tell her that. I just sensed something about him…something…”

“Not quite right?” A curt nod in response.

“She was young and she was smitten. He charmed her with his poor widowed dad routine.”

“But you saw through him.”

“Yeah. I wish I’d tried harder to make her see what I could see. I did try to talk her out of marrying him. I offered to help her move away, set up a business as far away from him as possible. Anything she wanted and I would’ve given it to her, gladly.” His voice changes as fresh grief grabs hold of him and squeezes tightly. Corrie sees the tears that fill his eyes, that he tries to brush away but the moment he does, more appear.

“She turned you down.”

Another glance her way. She sees sadness as well as resignation.

“She did. She told me that his little girl needed a mom and that’s what she wanted. She was so young and so taken in by him.”

“You think Patrick knew you weren’t a fan of his?”

“Without a doubt because the moment the wedding was done, the charm offensive was over and he did everything he could to isolate her from us. Her visits became less and less and when we did get together she was different…more withdrawn, anxious somewhat and definitely jumpier.” He gives an unhappy dissatisfied sigh and he heads over to the bed, dropping heavily onto the bottom edge. Corrie turns her head and she looks at Charlotte to see her standing in the entrance of the dressing room, a clothes hanger looped over one arm, watching them both. Silent.

“Then the Blip happened and there was a miracle. He disappeared and for five years we had our daughter back and we saw Grace… _Rory_ …as a granddaughter. We saw her blossom too.”

“And then he came back.”

“I wished to God he hadn’t but he did and we were right back at square one. I knew he was…hurting…her and I wanted to rip him apart but Alex told us she could handle him and to stay out of it. For once I wish I’d ignored her and acted on instinct.” He shakes his head again. Corrie goes to him and lowers herself down onto the bed beside him.

“He would’ve hurt you too. The man was a brute. He got what was coming to him. I only wish I’d been able to get here sooner, perhaps prevent what ultimately happened.”

Will looks at her but doesn’t reply but she can see his pain in his eyes.

“She was your only child?” This question she directs at Charlotte and sees her slow nod of confirmation.

“I’m sorry,” Corrie murmurs in response. Losing a child in tragic circumstances is terrible in itself but to lose an only child. Corrie doesn’t want to begin to think of the pain they’re going through right now.

“Alex’s funeral will be at the end of the week. If I give you the details, would you…” Will begins and then pauses. He then looks at his wife and then he takes a deep breath and looks at Corrie, “Would you be willing to attend, bring Rory? I think she’d like to say goodbye, don’t you? Of course it’s up to you but we all got along so well…and like I said, we saw her as a granddaughter almost.” 

For a moment Corrie can’t speak but what he says makes sense. Rory told her a little of her relationship with who was essentially the only mother she’d had since her abduction.

“I’ll give you my number and email and by all means, send me details of the service. I’ll talk to Rory and leave the final decision up to her. I’m sure she’d like to attend, thank you.”

* * *

She parks the SUV in the car park behind the large cemetery and switches off the engine. The place is busy and for a moment she watches the other mourners leave their vehicles and head towards the burial plot. Then she looks at Rory who’s still strapped in to the passenger seat.

“How are you doing, kiddo?” she enquires, keeping her voice low. Rory’s green eyes are huge in her pale face. She can see the dark shadows from the lack of sleep beneath them.

“I’ll be okay,” she answers, equally quiet.

“We don’t have to do this if you feel you can’t. There’s no pressure and Charlotte and Will _will_ understand.”

Rory turns her head and she watches the other people moving past their car for a moment or two before she looks back at her mother.

“I do have to do this. I have to say goodbye to her,” she replies with a wiseness beyond her years.

“Okay then. Let’s go,” Corrie tells her, unhooking her seatbelt.

* * *

Rory holds onto her hand as they head towards the burial site. It’s bitterly cold and she’s thankful for the thick coat that she wears. Rory clings to her hand as they walk. Corrie’s eyes take in the people who have arrived for the ceremony and apart from Rory and maybe Alex’s parents, she doesn’t know anyone here. She takes a deep breath, trying to quell the nerves in her stomach. She doesn’t know why she’s feeling so apprehensive but she is. Even though it’s Alex’s memorial, she feels the spectre of her ex-husband lingering on the edges. She didn’t know Alex, apart from the information she’d discovered in her initial research and the little Rory has shared with her but she’d taken care of her child when she couldn’t.

She’s aware of some of the looks she’s receiving as she walks with Rory. Some of the mourners seem to recognise Rory and if they’re friends of Alex’s then that would maybe make sense. No doubt they’re curious as to who she is and while she’s been careful with her make up, she knows she hasn’t managed to camouflage all of the bruising on her face.

Then she sees a familiar someone standing on the outskirts of the large group of mourners and her eyes widen in surprise. _Bucky._

They head towards him. She takes in the suit that he wears, black, well fitted, white shirt, suitable black tie. She’s never seen him in any kind of formal wear and she’s fully aware that she’s staring. She’s used to his jeans and t-shirt ensemble so this is a nice surprise. He scrubs up very nicely. They make eye contact.

“What are you doing here?” she asks him. She sees how he takes in his surroundings for a moment before looking at her and also at Rory who regards him steadily.

“Fury told me that you were planning on attending today and I thought you might appreciate the support.” He then looks at Rory again “If that’s okay with you too, Rory?” he adds. Corrie glances at her to see the small smile that crosses her face and the little nod that accompanies it. She then looks back at Bucky and smiles too.

“Thanks. I do, though you didn’t have to.”

“I know but I wanted to,” he replies levelly.

* * *

Corrie sees Alex’s parents seated in a row of chairs beside the flower covered casket and they turn and they smile at Rory. Rory smiles back. Corrie lets go of her daughter’s hand and watches as she makes her way towards them. They get to their feet as she approaches and Corrie watches her go into their arms. She sees how they embrace her, a hollow ache beginning to burn in her chest. She then looks at Bucky who is regarding the scene silently.

“They’re Alex’s parents. She was their only child and see Rory as a substitute granddaughter,” she murmurs as they walk slowly towards the small group.

“I can see,” Bucky responds. They pause beside them and Rory turns to look at her, holding onto Charlotte and Will’s hands, the obvious bond that they share.

She sees how they look from Corrie to Bucky.

“This is my colleague, James Barnes. James- Will and Charlotte French,” Corrie introduces and watches him shake their hands.

“Sir, ma’am. I’m sorry for your loss.” His tone is carefully respectful.

“Is it okay if I sit with them?” Rory requests and Corrie smiles softly.

“Of course it is sweetheart, we’ll be nearby,” she answers.

Corrie watches Rory sit between them before she follows Bucky to the outskirts of a particular group of mourners. He pauses and she stops beside him. As she turns she realises that they’re in direct sight of Rory.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you use my given name,” Bucky murmurs in her ear and she turns her head and looks at him and gives him the barest hint of a smile.

“Don’t get used to it,” she replies.

* * *

Corrie watches Rory as she interacts with Alex’s parents at the Wake afterwards. There are a lot of people present and she watches how all three of them deal with them and once more she’s impressed with her only child’s maturity. She shouldn’t have to be going through all of this at such a young age but she is and she’s dealing with it with a maturity beyond her years.

“Here.” She looks up when she hears Bucky’s voice and takes the white china cup and saucer from him. “It’s not your usual English breakfast tea…in fact it isn’t tea at all but I know you drink coffee occasionally and it’s really good stuff.” And as if to prove his point he takes a sip from his own coffee cup and he sits down beside her.

“How’s Rory doing?” he asks.

Corrie takes a sip of her coffee and feels the heat of it burn a path down to her stomach. He’s right, it’s really good stuff.

“She’s doing okay and Charlotte and Will are really loving having her here too.”

“They have a bond.”

Corrie slowly nods in agreement. “They do and I’m so grateful for it. You know, I had it in my head that Alex would be some sort of a wicked stepmother as horribly cliched as it sounds but I’m glad I was wrong. I would’ve have loved the opportunity to have met her.”

“Her folks seem nice enough.” Another nod from Corrie.

“They are.”

“So what’s going through your mind?”

She looks at him in mild surprise to see him observing her and he just gives her a slow shrug in acknowledgement.

“The aftermath. Once all of this settles and life resumes. That. It’s going to be tough,” she confesses.

“You don’t want to wrench her away from the only family she’s ever really known for the last…seven years?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m going to have to figure something out for Rory and me in the future and before I knew the whole story, I hadn’t figured for surrogate grandparents.”

“So keep them included.” 

She looks at him again and bites back the response she was going to make.

“They love her and accept her and it’s obviously reciprocated. Don’t rock the boat unless you have to.”

Corrie just stares at him.

“Speaking of rocking the boat. I spoke to Phillip Barnes a few days ago. He found out about you. You kept that quiet.”

She sees how he begins to withdraw. “Corrie…”

“Don’t you dare tell me it’s none of my business. It’s _been_ my business since the day you walked into Buchanan Books and met your great niece. Phillip called me. He wants to see you, to talk to you. He’s confused.”

“There’s nothing to be confused about. I’ve already explained to him and to Katie. It can’t happen.”

“Says who? You? I’ve also been talking to Fury. If you want Katie and now also Phillip to know everything like you originally wanted, then it can be arranged. I can invite them both to the complex and Fury and I will explain the Winter Soldier programming to them and leave the final decision of whether they want to know you up to them because the more you push them away by being this supremely noble… _human being_ , the more they’re going to push back. You can’t just shut them out. It’s not fair.”

“It wasn’t fair getting to know Katie.”

“And yet you did. And even after what happened at the cemetery, you _still_ did.”

“Yeah and look what happened there.”

“You could _not_ control that and despite what you claim, it wasn’t your fault. Be truthful, you liked having family nearby, even if it was just Katie to begin with. You thrived from it, having that important blood connection. You’ve spent so long alone Bucky. It doesn’t have to be that way forever.”

She sees how he frowns at this. She reaches across with her free hand and she covers his right hand with it and his eyes flick up to her face. She slides her fingers between his.

“At least think about it. I can’t force you to do this but I can’t help but think that if you don’t, you’ll end up regretting it.”

“You think you know what’s best for me?”

“You have a _family_ , Bucky. A really good solid family.” She lets go of his hand and instead places her palm against his cheek, feeling the prickle of stubble against her skin. “If you want, something can be worked out in the way of security for your nephew and your great niece.” She lowers her hand to her lap. “And I would hate to see you miss out on what could be one of the best experiences of your life.”


	14. A Wise Man Said...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrie ties up a loose end.   
> Rory and Bucky have a conversation.   
> The bond between Corrie and Bucky deepens. 
> 
> All errors are my own and unintentional.

**A Wise Man Said…**

Back at the complex, Corrie and Rory head to their room to change out of their funeral clothes. There’s something Corrie needs to do. Rory is settled on their bed and Corrie takes in the paperback in her hands. It turns out her child is a bit of a bookworm, preferring to lose herself between the pages of a book rather than the contents of a phone or computer as a lot of her peers do.

“Hey honey, I need to head across to my office and clear up some last minute paperwork. Will you be okay here for a little while?” she enquires, smoothing a hand over her red hair. Rory looks up at her and after a moment she smiles.

“I don’t mind,” she replies.

“It won’t be for long and if you like, we can chill out and watch a movie or something if you’re up for it, afterwards?” she suggests and Rory nods again. Corrie watches as she opens the pages of her book and settles down.

* * *

She heads out and to the Med bay. It’s been a little while since she last spoke to the Taylor sisters but they haven’t been far from her thoughts. The staff have been sending her regular medical updates and it looks like Amanda is making a slow but steady recovery. The girls are together, Amanda is out of bed and she’s smiling at something her sister is telling her but the smile slips away as Corrie taps on the door.

“Hey.” She takes them both in, sees their matching wary expressions. “Can I come in?” she asks. She waits until they grant her permission before stepping inside, closing the door behind her as she does.

“How are you doing, Amanda?” she enquires and she sees how the sister’s exchange a wary look. “It’s okay, it’s not a trick question. I’d genuinely like to know,” she continues.

“I’m a lot better Ms Harris, thanks to you and your team,” she replies quietly.

“Well I think it was more down to the team but I’m glad you’re feeling better.” She then turns her head and she looks at Annie who immediately ducks her head and looks away.

“There is a reason for me being here and it involves you, Annie.” She waits until the girl makes eye contact again.

“Because of the information you supplied us, we managed to close down a burgeoning HYDRA cell and in the process, reunite me with my daughter, who I’d been searching for for the past seven years. I have her back thanks to you.” She offers her a gentle smile and watches the surprise blossom across her face.

“So…you’ll be glad to hear that we won’t be taking matters against you any further over the planting of the bug in Bucky’s arm. We know you were acting under extreme duress at the time and that under any other circumstances, you wouldn’t have done such a thing.” The sisters exchange another, more astonished look.

“Once Amanda is fully recovered and discharged, I’d like to offer you a position at our complex that we’re in the process of opening in California. We can include moving expenses as well as a generous financial package that would allow Amanda to move with you and resume her college education at a suitable institution if you’d like us to.” The astonishment turns to amazement.

“Take a while to think about it and let me know your decision in due course. There’s no rush.”

“The men who took Amanda…” Annie begins.

“Are no longer a threat. They’re in custody or dead. They’ll no longer hassle you in any way shape or form, I guarantee it,” Corrie confirms.

* * *

Bucky turns his head from examining the contents of the fridge when he hears a door squeak open. Rory slowly emerges from the room that she’s currently sharing with her mother and they make eye contact. Rory pauses. Her eyes are like saucers and she clutches the book that she’s carrying close to her chest.

“Hey kiddo, where’s your mom?” he enquires, deciding to ignore her decidedly wary expression. She’s bound to be a little nervous around both him and Sam given her past and the events of the last couple of weeks.

“She said she had some paperwork to catch up on.” Her voice is quiet.

“Yeah? She works hard, your mom.” He looks back to the open door of the refrigerator before he looks back over his shoulder at her. “You want a snack? Something to drink?” he invites. He watches her carefully and he can see that she’s making up her mind. She takes a deep breath, holds onto her book a little tighter before she walks towards him and stops beside him.

“What is there to drink?” she enquires with scrupulous politeness. Bucky looks back into the fridge.

“There’s coke- the full fat ‘n’ sugar variety…”

“Mum’s favourite.”

Bucky glances at her and gives a crooked half-smile. “Yeah. Those are hers, we always ask first if we want one of those, to take one without permission is _not_ allowed. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you had one though. Want one?” he asks and sees the gleam in her eye and she nods. He sees how she carefully places her book on the counter top beside her as he reaches in and extracts a can before handing it to her and it’s then she sees his left hand. He doesn’t miss how her eyes widen at the sight of it. He glances down at it.

“Yeah and there’s that.” He straightens up a little more and closes the door. He looks at her again. “Want a glass?” She nods somewhat mutely and he reaches into a nearby cupboard and retrieves one. He looks back at Rory to see that she’s gone very still.

“I know we don’t know each other very well…if at all…but you obviously have questions and you can ask them. I don’t want you to think that you can’t.” Her eyes track up to his. He hands her the glass with his left and sees how she takes it with a quietly murmured thanks and another contemplative look at the hand. He then turns back and grabs another glass, moving to the sink and he fills it with water.

“What happened to your hand?” she asks.

Bucky looks down at his left hand again and lifts it, looking back at her. “This one?” She nods. “I lost it in an accident a very long time ago Lost my whole arm. Goes right up to my shoulder.” He looks at it again, twisting and turning it with surprising ease and grace.

“Did it hurt?”

“At the time, yeah a lot but now? Nope, not a bit.” He looks back at her again as a silence drops between them for a moment or two.

“You shot him.”

Bucky takes a mouthful of water and swallows. He then replaces the glass on the drainer and turns more fully around to face her.

“Your father? Yeah, I did.”

“He was a bad man.”

Bucky thinks back to what Corrie shared with him, the photos as well as her story. He then nods. “He was.”

“I’m glad he’s dead.” Her tone is stronger, more vehement. “He kept me from my mum, he stole me away from her.”

“She got you back though. It took her a little time but you’re here now and you’re safe.” He slowly straightens up. “You’re also angry.” She doesn’t answer but he can see it burning at the back of her eyes.

“It’s okay to be, it’s also okay to let other people see it. You might think that hiding it all makes it easier for you and your mom but trust me, forcing down all of that emotion isn’t a good idea.”

“You sound like you know.”

Bucky just shrugs. “I also know that surrounding yourself with good people really helps too.”

“And my mum is one of them.” It isn’t even a question. He nods.

“She’s one of the best. She takes care of all of us and the best thing you can do is be honest with her about how you’re feeling. It’ll help you both.”

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Sweetheart, you’ll hurt her more by not being honest with her. She’s a grown up and as your mom, she can handle any…crap…you want to throw her way. She’ll tell you it’s her job as your mom to be able to.”

“You saved her life back then.”

Bucky blinks at the rapid change of subject.

“I was just doing my job.” He watches how she shakes her head.

“No. You saved her life. You weren’t afraid of him and you saved us both. You and Sam. Thank you.”

Bucky regards her for a long moment or two and then smiles very gently at her.

“You’re welcome.”

* * *

Corrie enters the living quarters and sees her daughter on the couch, sandwiched between Bucky and Sam. All three of them are seemingly engrossed in something on the widescreen tv and for a brief moment, the three of them together flummoxes her. She glances at the screen. It’s a movie of some description, she has no idea what. Rory is stretched back, her feet propped up on the coffee table, a perfect copy of Bucky who sits on her right. She smiles when Rory tears her eyes away from the screen and looks at her. A brief moment passes where Corrie gets the distinct impression she’s being assessed before Rory smiles.

“Hey mum,” she greets and in turn both men turn their heads and look her way.

“Hey mom,” they both chorus. Rory giggles in response and Corrie just grins and rolls her eyes.

“I won’t interrupt the movie marathon except to say that I’m exhausted and someone else is going to have to take care of dinner tonight.”

“That’s okay, Bucky’s already suggested pizza,” Rory pipes up and Corrie raises a single eyebrow in response.

“He did, huh?” She glances across at him. “Then someone had better put in an order for extras. I’m starving.” She sees the red soda pop can by her daughter’s feet and decides to let that one slide. For now.

* * *

It’s much later. Bucky is checking the contents of various pizza boxes in the kitchen area when Corrie emerges from her room. He watches her approach him.

“What on earth are you doing?” she enquires as he opens the refrigerator door and deposits two of the pizza boxes inside. He glances at her as he closes it again.

“Leftovers. You never had cold pizza for breakfast before?”

Corrie shakes her head, “I can’t say that I have,” she replies.

“Ah, it’s an experience. One of the first things I discovered after breaking free from HYDRA. There’s nothing like pizza for breakfast. It wasn’t often I’d allow myself to have any but when I did.” He slowly shakes his head, a half smile on his face as he remembers.

“It must’ve been overwhelming those first few days of freedom.” Her voice is gentle and he glances at her again. He shrugs somewhat restlessly.

“A little.”

“Steve told me his first few days in the twenty first century were absolutely terrifying.”

“You talked to Steve a lot?”

It’s Corrie’s turn to shrug. “When he was around. Mainly he’d call by to check in on Natasha but he’d stop by to chat. Said he liked my accent, reminded him of Peggy sometimes.”

“She was the love of his life. I’m glad he got another chance with her, even if it’s in a pocket universe kind of place.”

“You never thought to go with him?”

Bucky’s continues to bag up empty pizza boxes and sort soda cans for recycling, his movements becoming slower as he thinks on it. He then shakes his head.

“No. Well…maybe for about twenty seconds. He asked me when he told me what he was planning on doing but I turned him down.”

“Why?”

Bucky lifts his head and he looks at her.

“Because he deserved a life of his own, without all of… _this_. Everything he’s done here, he’d earned it. Me? I’m nowhere even close to that. I’m just getting started.”

“You’re doing good work,” she reassures him and he smiles faintly again.

“We all are, it’s not just me. I couldn’t do half of this stuff without you and Sam.”

“I’m sure you would’ve found a way.”

“No. I don’t think I would have. Steve gave me the incentive, Pepper and Fury gave me the means but you and Sam, you both give me the motivation. I won’t forget that.”

They stare at each other for what feels like a long time and just like that the mood between them begins to change. It’s subtle. It’s a frisson but it’s something. Corrie feels her mouth go a little dry, feels her heartbeat pick up a notch before Bucky quietly clears his throat.

“Anyway…where’s the kiddo?”

“Fast asleep. I’m hoping it’ll take. You can understand, sleep hasn’t really been much of a priority for either of us since all of this went down so I’m hoping tonight’s pizza and soda and good company will do the trick, for tonight at least. And thank you, it was good of you both to hang out with her this evening, she’s enjoyed it.”

Bucky shrugs somewhat self-consciously. “We were happy to, she’s a good kid.”

Corrie exhales shakily. “She is but positive role models have probably been few and far between for her recently. She won’t talk about her father apart from saying that she’s glad he’s dead. Will French seems to have been the only decent example of not all men being controlling violent dicks and her father seemed intent on destroying that relationship too. The poor kid.”

Bucky sees the haunted expression in her eyes.

“She knows that I shot him,” he admits. He sees how her shoulders slump at this admission.

“I know. She would’ve had to. I know Sam got her out of there before everything…happened but she’s not stupid, she’d have seen or heard something, put the pieces together.”

“Well…we talked for a little while…about what happened and why.” He glances at her. “She asked. She wanted to talk to me. I answered as carefully as I could. She doesn’t like being patronised. Kinda reminded me of you in that respect.” He’s rewarded by her somewhat tired smile at this revelation.

“ I screwed everything up Bucky. I had no right being in that place pretending I knew what I was doing. I should’ve just stayed here. You told me that I could handle him and I even started to believe it myself. Until I saw him. And I was right back at square one again.” She drops her head. “God, I don’t know what I’m doing here, Bucky,” she quietly groans, covering her face with her hands. She’s so tired and her emotions are all over the place.

“Hey, hey…” Bucky’s voice is low, comforting and she lowers her hands from her face when she feels his hands gently clasp her upper arms and she looks into his eyes.

“You’re doing fine. You survived. You got your kid back. There’s always gonna be a period of…adjustment or something as you get used to each other again. That’s what this is. It’ll pass.”

“How are you so wise?” she asks him and he shrugs.

“I’m not sure I’m _wise_ , exactly. I mean I might not say too much but I watch and I listen so I guess I pick stuff up along the way.”

“And you were the older brother of how many sisters?”

“Two,” he reminds her. She nods in remembrance. “And that was eighty plus years ago.”

“Time doesn’t really matter. You were good at it. You’re _still_ good at it. You’re a good man, James Barnes. You’ve been through so much over the years, experienced so much horror yet here you are, being kind.”

“Because I surround myself with good people, that’s why. You need to be kinder to yourself too. You feel like you’re doing all of this by yourself, that you have to be strong and invincible for Rory and you think you don’t have anyone to lean on, that you don’t _need_ anyone but you know, you can lean on me.”

He watches how her eyes slowly widen at his words.

“Go on, give it a try. Lean.” He tightens his hold on her arms very slightly and draws her into his arms. Slowly, experimentally, she allows herself to lean against his chest. His skin is warm, radiating through the fabric of his t-shirt. She can feel it against her cheek and she resists the urge to rub it against the soft cotton. His arms go around her body and he holds her close. It’s just for a moment or two and she just absorbs the feel of him, his warmth and his strength. She can hear the solid bump of his heartbeat beneath her ear, slow and steady and soothing. She then takes a deep breath as she opens her eyes. He lets go of her as she takes a half step back and she looks into his eyes again.

* * *

Everything seems to go still within her. His expression is somewhat serious and for a moment she thinks about asking what’s wrong until she realises that there’s nothing really wrong here and she finally recognises what it is that’s pulling between them. It’s attraction. Her heart gives a jolt against her ribcage. He frowns a little. She lifts a hand and places it against his cheek, feeling how he startles very slightly at the contact. There’s a brief flash of surprise in his eyes. Her thumb brushes against his lower lip and he just stares at her as if hypnotised. A long moment passes between the two but to them it feels as though the universe has shrunk down and they’re the only two occupants. A door slams somewhere and Corrie stiffens and drops her hand. Bucky blinks, torn out of whatever it was going between them. Corrie takes another step back and breaks eye contact.

“I’m going to go…” She points behind her, to her room and he nods and watches her scoot away.

Once she’s out of sight, he noisily exhales, wondering what the hell had just happened between them.

Another moment passes and he hears her bedroom door open again. He turns his head and straightens up when he sees her walking towards him. There seems to be purpose in her stride and as she gets closer to him he sees a matching gleam in her eyes. Almost one of determination, he’d like to guess. In what feels like the time between one heartbeat and the next, she’s in his arms. Her hands touch his face again and for another equally brief second she looks into his eyes before he feels her mouth on his.

He holds onto her and sways backwards a little at the impact of her embrace. A hard pressure of lips. He closes his eyes as all of a sudden he’s filled with sensation, his heart knocking against his ribs, blood pressure beginning to climb, the scent of her surrounding him. Sweetness. Warmth. All of it crashes over him, through him and his head is all of a sudden swimming. His eyes blink open when he feels her pull away and she’s staring at him with wide shocked eyes.

“Oh my Lord…Bucky…I’m so sorry…that was highly unprofessional of me…” she whispers and he stares at her in blank confusion, his mind still trying to catch up with the rest of his body on what’s just happened.

“It’s okay, really.” His voice is low, husky. He just wants her to kiss him again. It’s been such a long time since any woman has and…wow, his body hasn’t forgotten after all of that time either. _Good to know._

“No it wasn’t. It really wasn’t.” She sounds really shaken as she lets go of him and takes a definite step back, looking down at herself, at her feet. Pretty much at anything, anyone but him and he really wants her to look at him right now.

“Corrie.” She doesn’t move. “Corrie. Please look at me.” Success. She looks at him. Her colour is high. She’s embarrassed.

“Don’t. Don’t be embarrassed. I’m not.” He desperately wants to reassure her. The eye contact lasts barely a moment before she’s staring at her feet again.

“Hey.” He takes a step towards her but stops as she freezes up, her eyes widening in alarm. It hurts, that subtle sign of rejection but he understands.

“Let me?” he asks. Her eyes return to his face. He can all but hear the argument she’s having with herself. Then she nods her assent but this time the step he takes towards her is more cautious, more careful but she doesn’t move, doesn’t retreat.

“Please let me,” he whispers and she stays still as he gently grasps her shoulders. He lowers his head and this time he’s the one who kisses her. It’s gentle, tender, a bare pressure against her mouth. He doesn’t want to scare her off, she’s a heartbeat away from fleeing. His heart resumes its crazy symphony in his chest cavity, threatening to burst right out of there. She sinks into him, her arms going around his neck as slowly, eventually she melts into him.

A moment or two or several, he’s lost count, pass by. His heart rate isn’t slowing down any time soon. One kiss has turned into more. Hormones have kicked in and they threaten to overwhelm, they threaten to make him greedy, to want more but he knows at the back of his lust soaked mind that she’s not ready for his kind of more. She’s _just_ comfortable with this but God, it’s been a while for him, he knows but he guesses the old saying is true, about learning to ride a bike- once you master it, you never forget. Or words to that effect. He doesn’t know what he’s thinking or talking about any more.

Corrie draws away from him. He just stares at her. Less confused maybe but no less greedy.

“That can’t happen again, Bucky, no matter how much we may want it to.” Her perception is sharp, on point. He just nods. She stares into his eyes for another long moment she lets go of him once more. She moves out of his embrace, placing a safe distance between them. She begins to turn.

“Goodnight,” she murmurs.

“Night, Corrie,” he answers.


	15. Persuasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's push and there's pull. Corrie works on Bucky.

**Persuasion.**

She aches for him.

Corrie quietly closes the door and leans against it, wrapping her arms around her mid-section. For a moment she closes her eyes as she remembers his kiss. Waits for her heartbeat to slow, waits for her blood pressure to lower. Neither seem in a hurry to comply right now. Instead the blood has settled low in her stomach, moving slow and thick through her veins.

He was so gentle. So careful. He asked permission. He was considerate. Sweet.

Even after she’d thrown herself into his arms and made an exhibition of herself.

She hasn’t kissed another man in over seven years. Hasn’t been interested; too scared and too committed to building a life for herself and her daughter and then too committed to searching for her and getting her back and squashing the existing fear flat.

Now she is. Now she has. She’s still scared.

Now a whole list of possibilities have begun to open up in front of her and she thought that she wasn’t interested.

She still doesn’t know why she kissed him just that she wanted to. He kissed her back. He kissed her back and oh Lord…

She aches for him and it’s a new feeling for her. She didn’t think a kiss could have such an effect on her.

Because she isn’t used to tenderness. Patrick very rarely showed it to her and definitely not towards the end of their relationship.

But Bucky…a man who wasn’t shown any kind of tenderness or kindness even for several decades, showed her a gentleness that just about brought her to her knees. She exhales raggedly.

“Mum?” Rory’s voice is sleepy in the partially lit room. Corrie straightens up.

“I’m here sweetheart, go back to sleep,” she answers, her voice low. She watches how Rory stirs briefly and then settles again. She goes to retrieve her pyjamas and she heads towards the bathroom to change and brush her teeth.

Yeah. She aches for him.

And she’s still scared.

And there’s not a damn thing she’s willing to do about it.

* * *

Breakfast the following morning is a sombre affair. Silence hangs over the room like a thick fog. No one seems to be in much of a mood to talk about anything. Maybe it’s a pizza and soda hangover day. Maybe it’s something to do with the weather outside. Overcast. Grey. Cold. Corrie casts a look around, her gaze stilling on Bucky who’s sitting staring somewhat disconsolately into a bowl of cereal, stabbing it gently with his spoon.

“We need to talk about Thanksgiving.” Her announcement has three pairs of eyes looking her way.

“We do?” Sam answers, eyes widening slightly and Corrie nods.

“We do. It’s happening soon and it’ll be the first one since…everything returned to some kind of normality. I’m not sure what to do here. Should we have a celebration here on the day? Do you guys have plans already? I don’t mind cooking, it’d actually be nice to do something like this but only if you guys want to do it too.” She watches how Bucky and Sam exchange a look.

“I already have plans to visit family for the weekend,” Sam begins, his tone apologetic.

“And I’m doing stuff too so won’t be around,” Bucky adds and he looks down at his cereal bowl. “Sorry.”

Corrie huffs out a quiet sigh. “That’s fine. I suppose it’s just going to be Rory and myself.” She picks up her cereal bowl and heads to the sink to rinse and doesn’t see the look Sam sends Bucky.

* * *

“And what plans do you all of a sudden have?” Sam demands a little later as they head to the gym. The look Bucky sends him is somewhat irritated.

“Just something,” he answers, evasive.

“Corrie looked a little disappointed that we won’t be around for Thanksgiving.”

“She’ll get over it.” His dismissive tone has Sam staring at him.

“She’ll _get over_ it? What the hell is wrong with you man? Her first Thanksgiving with her daughter.”

“And you’re asking me to stick around and babysit them? I’ve told you, I’ve got stuff to do on the day so I can’t.”

“Such as?”

“Just something I have to do.”

Sam watches as Bucky strides away from him, hitching his gym bag further up his shoulder as he does.

* * *

She sits at the dining table and stares down at the notepad, chewing idly on the end of her pen. She turns her head when she sees someone slide into the chair beside her. Rory.

“What are you doing?”

Corrie huffs out a sigh as she stares at the list she’s creating.

“A list. Stuff I have to do. We have to do, if you’re interested?” She pushes the list across to her and sees how she scrutinises it.

“Food for Thanksgiving?”

Corrie nods as she pulls the notebook back across.

“It’s just going to be you and me. Sam will be with his family, Bucky has his own plans and Fury is off doing mysterious top secret Fury kind of stuff.” She glances at her again. “I’ve never really celebrated before.”

“Not once?” Rory sounds genuinely surprised.

“Not really. It’s not really a British thing so I usually spent the time working. I didn’t mind.” She’d cover for those who felt able enough to spend it with what family they had left and since she had none, she was more than happy to work through it.

“I thought this year we could celebrate. I have a lot to be grateful for. I finally have you back, that’s the most important thing. Which brings me to my next topic.”

“And what’s that?”

“I promised you a shopping trip. Clothes. Books- I noticed you’ve just about finished the ones you asked me to bring back from the house. I happen to know an excellent book store not too far from here if you’re interested.”

She sees the apprehension in her daughter’s eyes.

“You’re safe now Rory. Nobody is going to take you from me. _Nobody_.” She pauses.

“Though I could ask for extra security if it would make you feel better? I’m sure it could be arranged for an afternoon.” She begins to mentally file through the list of people she could approach. She’d pay them out of her own pocket.

Rory sighs and Corrie can all but hear the trepidation behind it.

“Would Bucky come with us?” she suggests and Corrie stares at her in surprise.

“Bucky? Why him in particular?”

“Because I like him. He’s tough and he’s strong and he’d protect us with no problem.”

“Who would protect you no problem?”

Neither of them had heard Bucky enter and they both startle.

“Sorry,” he apologises and Corrie looks at her daughter.

“He does that a lot. You get used to it, eventually,” she explains. She turns her head and sees Bucky approaching them, sees how he cranes his neck to look at her shopping list. He looks freshly showered. His hair is damp and he smells of soap and deodorant. She catches a glimpse of Sam coming in behind him. They’ve both been to the gym.

“You,” she tells Bucky and sees his blink of surprise.

“Excuse me?”

“We’re planning a shopping trip, hence the list. Understandably Rory is a little…nervous about being outside again after everything that’s happened. I mentioned arranging for a bodyguard for the afternoon and she suggested you.”

“What kinda shopping trip?” She watches as he goes to the sink, reaching for a glass from the cupboard above it. He half fills it with water and then turns to look at them both, leaning somewhat lazily against the countertop.

“The female kind. Clothes mostly. A trip to the bookstore is also planned.” The warning is there and she sees the faintest flicker in his eyes at that piece of information as he takes a sip of his water. He lowers the glass and stares at them both contemplatively.

“When were you planning on this shopping trip?” he asks. Corrie and Rory exchange another look.

“Tomorrow, all going well?” she suggests to her and after a moment Rory nods.

“Okay. I’m in,” he announces, putting the glass on the drainer. Corrie’s eyes widen with surprise.

“It wasn’t a hint. You’re under no obligation to accept, I’m perfectly happy asking someone else.”

Bucky straightens up. “I know but I figure I kinda owe you for the last time when I dragged you shopping and it’ll kill some time.”

“That last time you didn’t drag me anywhere. This time it _is_ beyond your job description and I mean that with respect,” Corrie reminds him.

“Just let me know what time you’re gonna leave and I’ll be ready.”

Corrie stares steadily at him for what feels like a long minute. “Very well, though you and I need to have a conversation first. Preferably in private and preferably in my office.”

“About what?” He holds her gaze and she just about manages to stop herself from rolling her eyes. He’s deliberately playing dumb.

“Oh I think you know,” she answers instead.

* * *

She looks up at the tap on her office door and sees Bucky standing just outside.

“You said we needed to have a conversation.”

Corrie leans back slightly in her seat as she regards him.

“We do and I’m pretty sure you know what about.”

“Mentioning the book store gave me a good idea,” he confirms. Corrie beckons him in, which he does, closing the door behind him. She’s glad that he’s picked up on that. She can’t talk about the kiss. She doesn’t think that she can.

“Fury wanted to be in on this meeting too but was called away at the last minute. Something in Washington needs his attention but everything I have to say to you has been authorised by him.”

Bucky lowers himself into a chair across from her desk.

“Let me guess, it’s about Katie and Phillip?” He sounds almost resigned.

“It is. Have you thought any more about what I said at the funeral service?”

She hears his quiet sigh. “Because I want you to be fully informed. If you’re agreeable to the idea, we can bring Katie and Phillip here. We can brief them on roughly ninety plus percent of what happened to you before all of this as well as what you’ve been doing here, whatever you’re comfortable with sharing. Your security concerns are more than valid after what happened to Katie so Fury is also authorising emergency contacts within the department. We’ll also kit them out with cell phones, various security devices and prioritise if they feel threatened or under attack by anyone connected to you and your job from your past or in the present. The moment they make contact then we’ll dispatch assistance.” She pauses and regards him as he absorbs this information.

“You’re suggesting that I want to renew contact?”

“Don’t you? Because I’m thinking if not, you wouldn’t be here now talking to me.”

“Mainly because you won’t let the subject go. I thought I made my opinion on the matter clear?”

“If I thought you meant it, again we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“No, _you’re_ having the conversation, I was just instructed to be here.”

Corrie sighs with ill-concealed irritation.

“That’s bullshit Barnes and you know it. You were the one who wanted Katie to be more fully informed, more aware of what you do here. Here’s your opportunity. I’m not saying it’s fool-proof because it won’t be but it’s a start. You’ve got a whole family out there, why not get to know them?”

“I’m not going to repeat myself on why it’s not a good idea, you already know.”

“My only blood family is my daughter, do you know that? She’s all that I have in the world. My dad left home when I was a child, I have no idea if he’s alive or dead. My mum passed away while I was at university. I have no siblings, no aunts or uncles or cousins. I have no one out there to send Christmas cards or birthday cards to. No one to spend special occasions with. You do and they obviously don’t care how much time has gone by since the last time they saw you.”

“None of them are old enough to know who I am.”

“And this is a great opportunity to change that.”

“You’re seeing this from a rose tinted glasses point of view. Because you’ve never really experienced it, you have this vision in your head on how it’s going to be.”

“Well I could accuse you of the same thing, minus the rose tinted glasses, of course,” she snips back and he closes his mouth and sighs.

“Corrie. I appreciate what you’re trying to do…”

“You have a connection to Katie. She has completely accepted you. In fact she was the one who suggested that your relationship moving forward was to be a brand new page.”

“Why do you care if I get in touch with my family or not?” Bucky enquires and it takes Corrie everything to not roll her eyes at him.

“Because you _have_ a family to be in touch with, be a part of. Even after all of this time. Whether they’re old enough to remember you or not. It’s a big opportunity to create new links, they can help you with memories of your parents and your siblings. Phillip for one can tell you more about Charlie.”

“Katie told me she’s made some photo albums of family members for me, told me it’s something she’s been working on since she found me.” Bucky’s voice loses its belligerence.

“You’ll regret it if you decide to not be a part of their lives. You’ve been alone for so long and they’re just there waiting for you to say hello.”

There’s a faint frown on his face as he absorbs what she says.

“ _God!_ ” She hears his frustration as he leans back in his chair and stares up at the ceiling. After a moment or two he sits up straight and he looks at her.

“Okay. You win. Set it up. Do your worst.” He gets to his feet and leaves.

* * *

Corrie gives a heavy sigh as she watches him go. She then reaches for her cell and she calls the number Phillip Barnes left her. He answers quickly.

“Mr Barnes, it’s Corrie Harris. We spoke a short while ago regarding Bucky. Can you talk?” She can hear the soft murmur of a television show in the background.

“I can. I’m at Katie’s apartment.”

“How’s Katie doing?”

“She’s improving daily. It’s slow progress but it’s progress.”

Corrie leans back in her seat. “I’m really glad to hear it.” She then pauses as she gathers her thoughts.

“You said you were calling about Bucky?” Phillip prompts.

“I am. I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you.”

“You spoke to him?”

“I did.”

“What did he say?”

Corrie leans back in her chair and she stares up at the ceiling, much the same as Bucky had done just a few minutes earlier.

“I’ll be honest with you Mr Barnes. He has doubts and they’re very real and very personal to him. He still holds himself responsible for what happened to Katie and that’s been a driving force behind his reluctance to meet up with you.”

“We don’t blame him, we never did.”

“I’m sure that’s true but Bucky blames himself all the same and that’s on him. Despite that, he’s agreeable to the idea of meeting up with you both once more.”

“He is?” She would have to be deaf not to hear the elation coming down the phoneline.

“He is but in order for him to do that, there have to be conditions. He wants you both to know what you would be letting yourselves in for and because the level of security clearance required to be a party to that information it will mean a meeting here at where he lives and works. Would you and Katie be willing to come along to talk and listen within the next couple of days? Would Katie be up to the trip? We’d be happy to send a car to pick you both up at a suitable time?”

* * *

Corrie returns to the living area and sees Rory sitting on the couch. Sam is occupying a nearby armchair. He looks like he’s watching the programme on the screen but Corrie knows he’s keeping more than a half an eye on Rory. Corrie feels grateful for it.

“Hey sweetheart, you seen Bucky around?” she enquires, tousling her hair as she walks by.

“He came back about half an hour ago and went into his room. I haven’t seen him come out,” Rory replies. “Why?”

“I just need to talk to him about something. It will also mean our shopping trip will have to be postponed for a few days. Is that okay?”

Rory looks up at her with wide green eyes and she just nods.

“You want me to go get him?” Sam enquires in a low voice but Corrie shakes her head.

“He might be sleeping and I don’t want to wake him if he is, but thanks anyway.”

* * *

Late nights at the complex are getting to be a thing, Corrie is starting to realise. She’s sitting on the couch working on her laptop with a long since cold cup of coffee as company. Sam has gone to his room, Rory is sleeping and there’s been no sign of Bucky at all. She hasn’t asked AMI to check on his status yet but she’s tempted to. She lifts her head when she hears a door open somewhere and she listens, in case it’s Rory but after a few minutes, Bucky comes into view.

“Hey,” he murmurs as he walks by.

“Hey yourself,” she answers. “Do you have a minute?”

She watches him pause and then turn to face her.

“I guess I do.”

“Want some coffee?” she asks, going to put her laptop to one side. He shakes his head as he walks towards her.

“No. It keeps me awake.” He pauses beside her “And I’m good where tea is concerned too, thanks.” She watches him lower himself down onto the couch beside her. “What do you need to talk to me about?”

Corrie sighs quietly, drawing her laptop closer to her.

“After our conversation earlier tonight, I spoke to Phillip Barnes.”

“I figured you might. You talked such a good game, I didn’t think you’d hang around to let the grass grow under your feet.”

She closes the laptop.

“A good _game_? My wanting to reconnect you to your family is a good game? God Bucky, if that’s going to be your attitude I may just call Phillip in the morning and cancel the whole damn thing. Maybe I should’ve just taken the hint and dropped the matter completely.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because you were alone for eighty years Bucky. Eight decades. I just want you to have something just for you.”

“And I appreciate what you’re trying to do but for seven of those decades, I didn’t know I had any family to miss them. When I got free of HYDRA, it didn’t occur to me that I might and then when it did, I guessed that even if I did, it’d be far too late to get back in touch and those who knew me back then are long gone.”

“But the ones who are here _now_ feel like they do. You were never forgotten by them.”

Bucky frowns slightly at this piece of information.

“I know but I’m not that guy anymore. From what Katie has told me, they think I’m like Steve, a hero who’s returned from the dead and I’m not.”

“And you don’t know how they’ll react to that information? Well I’m going to tell them tomorrow afternoon when they get here. Just Phillip and Katie. The plan is to keep the group small and take it from there.” She sees how his eyes widen slightly at this.

“Tomorrow afternoon?” he breathes. “Shit.”

“Yeah well as you’ve said, I’m not one for letting the grass grow beneath my feet. Now you can be present during the meeting if you’d like or not. It’s not essential.”

“But you think I should?”

“It’s entirely up to you,” she answers softly.


	16. All or Nothing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment of truth. Will Bucky's family accept him once they learn more about the Winter Soldier? 
> 
> While some supposition may have been used, all errors are my own and are unintentional.

**All Or Nothing.**

He’s barely slept and he doesn’t feel like eating.

He sits at the breakfast table and stares at the mug of coffee that quietly steams in front of him. Sam has been and gone. Rory sits opposite him and she watches him with slightly worried eyes. Corrie is making breakfast for them both and ignoring Bucky’s contemplative, quiet mood.

A bowl appears in front of him and it makes him blink and look up. Corrie stands beside her daughter and she’s placing a box of cereal and a carton of milk in front of him.

“Eat something.”

He straightens up in his seat and shakes his head. “I can’t.”

She nudges the cereal box closer to him. “Yes you can. Otherwise you’re going to make yourself ill.”

“If I eat anything then you can guarantee I will make myself ill.” He sees the sympathy in her eyes.

“Just have a little bit. Super soldier or not, starting the day on an empty stomach isn’t a good idea.” Bucky gets the impression that she uses this tactic, this gently persuasive tone of voice on her daughter too. He huffs out a deep sigh and reaches for the box.

She’s damn good at it.

* * *

“How are you holding up?”

Corrie turns to look at Fury who stands at the opposite end of the conference table.

“I’m okay I think. Constantly second guessing whether this show and tell session is such a good idea after all.”

“I know but I think after everything that’s happened, it needs to be done. Where’s Barnes?”

“I left him in the Living Complex. Pacing. He’s trying to hide it but the pacing is giving him away. He’s pushed against me every time I’ve mentioned doing this. Maybe I should have taken the hint and just left it alone like he wanted. Why must I think that everyone should have a happy ever after even when they don’t really want it?”

“Because it’s something you’ve never really had and you feel like you owe him to try?” Fury suggests and Corrie huffs out a sigh, shoulders sagging a little.

“Probably.”

“ _Just_ probably?”

“Okay, more than probably. I do owe him even though he keeps telling me that I don’t and that he was just doing his job.”

“How do you think his nephew and great niece will handle this?”

“Honestly? Because I know Katie a little bit better than I know her father, I think she’ll be okay with the extra information. She’s pushed for this: a closer relationship with Bucky as well as to know more about his past. She was the one who suggested a clean slate a few months back when they first started to get to know each other. Her father, I’m not so sure. The background checks I’ve been running on him have all come back clean. The Barnes clan sound like a solid strong one. My gut is telling me it’ll be okay but my heart isn’t entirely sure and I’ve been told often enough by you, to trust my gut more but right now it’s really hard to do that.”

“I don’t think we’d be doing this if we weren’t at least a little hopeful of a positive outcome.”

* * *

Corrie watches as both Katie and her father enter the conference room. Katie looks a lot better than the last time she’d peeped in on her. The bruises have almost faded completely but she can see one or two beneath the cosmetics that she’s wearing. She watches their reaction to their surroundings.

“Katie, Mr Barnes, please take a seat? Can I get you something to drink? Water, coffee?” Corrie invites, indicating the chairs.

“Coffee would be nice,” Phillip answers, taking one of the seats. Corrie nods.

“I thought Bucky might have been here?” Katie enquires as she slowly sits down beside him. Corrie looks across at Fury for a moment before she takes a deep breath.

“Bucky felt that anything we share with you today should be done so without him being present but he’s close by if you want to talk to him later,” she replies.

* * *

Coffee is served. Corrie hands out cups and saucers and tries to quell the nerves twitching in the pit of her stomach. She looks at Katie and then at Phillip.

“Okay. First of all, for security purposes, what we’re about to share with you this afternoon doesn’t leave this room. I also need you to take a look at these legal documents I’ve had drawn up for you to read and sign if you’re agreeable to the terms. I’m afraid that they’re final and non-negotiable and if that sounds…draconian then it’s because we’re officially obligated to protect this organisation’s rights as well as Bucky’s role within it. If you feel that for whatever reason you can’t sign it then I’m afraid we won’t be able to proceed with this meeting.” She passes them across to them both and waits while they read them. She doesn’t realise that she’s holding her breath until both of them finally, thankfully scribble their signatures on the dotted line. She exhales as she collects them and checks the signatures. She then looks to Fury and just nods.

“Your family will have received notification back in 1944 that your Uncle, James Buchanan Barnes was listed as missing, most likely killed in action,” Corrie begins and sees how they both nod.

“Prior to that, Bucky as well as most of the 107th were taken prisoner and shipped to a HYDRA facility in Azzano which is in Italy. They were rescued by Steve Rogers.” Another nod.

“What you and we didn’t know at the time was that during his stay there, Bucky was experimented upon. He was given a version of the super-serum that Steve received.”

“Wait a minute, _experimented_ on?” Katie interrupts. Corrie looks at her and she nods.

“Unfortunately yes. A scientist by the name of Arnim Zola injected him with this serum and prior to the rescue, he was the only one who survived its effects.” She pauses, takes a sip of her coffee before she continues, “It was because of the serum that he survived the fall from the train. It’s because of the serum that he hasn’t aged, or at least why he ages a lot slower than you or I. It’s also given him some enhanced abilities. He’s strong, he recovers from injury very quickly, his immune system is wicked strong too and he has excellent vision and hearing. Most of these he had prior to having the serum injected, the serum itself enhanced them to an extra…degree.”

She looks at Fury, who’s watching the situation silently, arms folded.

“Shortly after the fall, Bucky was taken by HYDRA. They were originally the scientific division of the German Nazi Party during the Second World War. They evolved into their own entity afterwards with strong ties to Russia. For several decades Bucky underwent what was known as the Winter Soldier Programming. It involved torture, brainwashing and other similar procedures. I know he’s already mentioned some of this to you already, Katie. While he survived the initial fall from the train, an arm was badly injured. Eventually it was replaced by a metal prosthetic. You may have noticed it yourself.”

“His left arm,” Phillip adds on and Corrie just nods.

“He told me it was a war injury,” Katie volunteers.

“Well if you want to get technical then yes it was. His entire left arm, including the shoulder socket is a prosthetic. Sophisticated cybernetics are in play. The one he has now is a replacement of the original one,” Corrie confirms. She gives pause as she collects her thoughts.

“I want you to know that he fought against the brainwashing for as long as he could. It took them twenty years to break him down. The programming Bucky underwent erased his memories, of who he was prior to being captured. HYDRA systematically erased who he was, where he came from. They controlled him. They used him. He still fought against them until he couldn’t, until he gave in. I know he’s said that even though he was alive, he couldn’t have returned to you. That part is true. He didn’t know he had any surviving family until Katie encountered him at the book store so as you can imagine, it’s been a lot for him to take onboard.”

“What did HYDRA use him for?” This is from Phillip and once more Corrie exchanges another look with Fury before she looks at him.

“He was used as an assassin. Very bad people used him to further their own agendas. He had no control over this, no say. We have proof of this.” She sees the colour drain out of Phillip’s face at this revelation. Katie is very quiet.

“Obviously the targets are classified and will remain so. They’re above even my pay grade but suffice to say, Bucky was coerced into these missions. He was tortured, brainwashed, ordered to comply on the pain of severe punishment. After each mission, his mind was wiped so he has no real memories of them. Again we have proof of this. There are recordings and trust me, what he was put through, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

“You’ve seen them?” Phillip again.

Corrie nods, “I have. It’s part of my job. They’re not pretty.” She looks at Katie and she sees the tears brimming in her eyes.

“You need to remember that he survived all of that and he’s recovering. He’s recovering _now_.” She watches Katie wipe at her eyes.

“I know but to hear it…”

“Was it him in Vienna?” Phillip interrupts. Corrie looks at him.

“He was in Europe at the time but he wasn’t in Vienna. You’re talking about the bombing of the UN building during the Sokovian Accords ratification ceremony, right?” At Phillip’s nod, she continued. “That wasn’t him. Bucky was in Bucharest at the time. Again we have proof. The photograph that was broadcast was of someone made to look like him. It was all part of an elaborate plot by someone with a much darker ulterior motive.”

“How is he now?”

“He’ll always be in recovery Mr Barnes but he’s getting better. A lot of his memories of his past, of his identity have been destroyed but some of it is gradually coming back to him. It’s why he’s here with us, with our organisation. He’s a good man, that part of him hasn’t changed and because of that part of him, he wants to help people, make amends for the things he was forced to do.”

“He wasn’t responsible for those,” Katie tells her.

“Of course he wasn’t but Bucky feels that he is, that he was. He still carried out those missions and because of that he feels a deep sense of shame and guilt. He needs to be able to put things right. For his peace of mind and that’s what he’s doing here.” 

“And in the process, he will attract people with an axe to grind. People like Jonathan Kelly, who you knew briefly as Jack.” This she directs at Katie. “He was the half-brother of a man who was a part of the team assigned to work with the Winter Soldier almost ten years prior by the name of Brock Rumlow. Rumlow was killed in an explosion in Nigeria several years ago after an encounter with Captain America and other Avengers and since then Jonathan held Steve responsible but obviously given recent circumstances, Cap wasn’t there for him to exact his revenge on so he turned it towards Bucky instead, using you to get at him.”

“I told him that wasn’t his fault.”

“And I’m sure he told you otherwise. You know how stubborn he can be and how protective he is. He withdrew from contact because he cares, he wants to be able to keep you safe. It would literally kill him if anything happened to you.” Another look Fury’s way and when he nods just the once, Corrie continues. “Which is why, if you’re agreeable, we can set a variety of security measures in place. Phone numbers, cell phones, panic buttons to begin with. If someone gets in touch with you regarding Bucky in any way that makes you feel uncomfortable, seems a little bit off to you then get in touch with us and we will help in whatever way we can. You can also have added security should you need it, either at home, at work.”

“Added security?” Phillip enquires.

“A security detail if necessary until any danger has passed.” She sees his eyes widen at this.

“Really? You’d do this for Bucky, for us?”

“In a heartbeat.”

Katie’s eyes soften for a brief moment.

“The Barnes’s are a tough clan, Ms Harris. Right down the line from the lady I was named after, Katherine; Bucky’s mom. She was the toughest of all of us. She passed away before I was born but grandpa and dad told me stories about her and I’ve seen that strength in Bucky.”

“For what he’s gone through, he’s one of the strongest people I know,” Corrie agrees. She then looks at Phillip, who has gone very quiet.

“Mr Barnes? Do you have any more questions?” She watches as he seems to snap out of whatever thoughts he was lost in before looking at her.

“Just when can we talk to him?” he asks.

Corrie pauses as she absorbs this. “Just so we’re clear, you’re still interested in maintaining a relationship with Bucky?” she clarifies and she feels relief begin to flow through her as they both nod.

* * *

Corrie enters the living complex and is surprised to see only Sam there.

“Bucky?” she enquires.

“In the courtyard area. Building a snowman with your daughter,” Sam responds and he watches as two more people follow her in. Sees their wide eyed curiosity as they take in their surroundings. He gets to his feet.

“Sam, you’ve already met Katie, this is her father, Phillip Barnes. Mr Barnes, this is Sam Wilson, Bucky’s friend and colleague here.”

The two men shake hands. Corrie walks to the window and sees Bucky and Rory hard at work. They’ve created the body of the snowman and Bucky is in the process of lifting a large head onto the top of it. She watches how they interact. Rory seems to have lost any modicum of shyness around him as they discuss the next part of their task. Then he smiles at her and Corrie is momentarily taken by surprise at how warm and natural it is. She’s seen him smile. It doesn’t happen all too often but he does smile and when he does, it isn’t like this one. Rory says something to him and she sees him laugh and she laughs with him. She feels her heart double tap in her chest as she takes a slow deep breath and turns to face their visitors.

“I’ll just go and get him,” she begins and Katie shakes her head.

“If it’s okay, we’d like to go out there, talk to him ourselves?” she asks. Corrie looks to Phillip and he nods in agreement.

“Alright. I’ll show you where you need to go.”

* * *

Bucky turns his head when he hears the door open. He’s still smiling, the sound of Rory’s laughter still echoing in his head. He sees two people step out and he goes still when he recognises them and he ignores the nose dive he feels in the pit of his stomach. He looks at Rory to see her regarding them curiously.

“Who are they?” she asks him.

“They’re my family, I think,” he murmurs and Rory’s head swivels back in his direction, puzzlement clear in her eyes.

“You think?”

Bucky just shrugs.

“I hope. Listen, I need to talk to them for a little while. Would you be okay with giving us a few minutes honey? It’s getting kinda cold out here. We can hang out together a little later if you want?” To his relief, she just nods.

“Okay. See you later,” she answers and he watches her head away from him, back into the complex where Corrie stands waiting for her, passing the couple on the way.

Bucky remains still as they approach him, making their way towards him carefully through the thick snow. The flight part of the fight or flight response is dominant and he actively fights against the age old instinct to turn and run.

Katie still looks a little pale, a little fragile. He can see old bruises. She’s wrapped up against the cold, a knitted hat on her head the same colour as her eyes. It looks homemade. His eyes tick across to Phillip. His nephew. Technically it feels like it should be the other way around. He doesn’t remember if he ever had any uncles. His brain is still fuzzy on that information. He doesn’t say a word and for a moment he just stares at them, spine straight, every muscle tense as if bracing himself for the worst.

And then Katie wraps her arms around him and hugs him, hugs him tight.

It makes him startle for a brief second. She draws back and looks into his eyes and he sees the dampness in them.

“You are a Barnes and that makes you family. No matter what,” she murmurs to him. He looks across to Phillip to see him slowly smile and then nod in agreement. He goes to him and hugs him too and Bucky blinks.

“Anything you want or need from us Bucky, we’ve got you,” he whispers, his warm breath creating clouds of steam on the frigid air.

“But…”

Katie captures one hand and holds on tightly. “It doesn’t matter. None of it. That’s all in the past. It’s fine. Remember, brand new page.”

Bucky is speechless.

* * *

“You want to walk for a little while, before we freeze?” Bucky suggests, his voice a little husky. Katie smiles and she nods. He gives her a small smile in response and offers her his arm and feels her slide her hand into the crook of his elbow. Phillip goes to his other side as they begin to walk, heading out of the courtyard to a landscaped area that even contains a pond of some description. He’s only been out here once and that was when the weather was better.

“So what did Corrie share with you?” Bucky asks.

“She told us what happened to you after you fell from the train. That HYDRA took you, tortured and brainwashed you with the Winter Soldier programming and turned you into an assassin forced to do their dirty work. That was the part you didn’t want me to know,” Katie responds.

“With good reason.”

“Maybe but it happened. We know you were forced.”

“But I still did it. All of what they asked me to do.”

“Because you would’ve been punished. You tried to fight back, you held out for twenty years according to Corrie.” Phillip adds and Bucky glances at him.

“So where do you want to go from here?” he asks them both as they pause by the water. It’s flat, grey, the ice coating its surface cracked and splitting.

“Forwards?” Katie suggests and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” he replies mildly.

“We aren’t asking you to move in or anything like that. We know there’ll be times when you’ll be busy on assignment. I just don’t want you to…I don’t know… disappear again,” Phillip replies. Bucky looks at him. He can see Charlie in him, the Charlie he remembers.

“I won’t. I mean, you’re right, there’ll be times where you might not see me for a few weeks for whatever reason but I’ll stay in touch. We can get together, hang out, get to know each other a little better.”

“That’s all we’re asking for,” Phillip tells him.

“But I’m not good at this kinda stuff. I’m out of practice. And then there’s the rest of the family. Rose had six kids and according to Katie they’ve all had kids…I don’t think I could handle trying to get to know all of them. I remember Rose being such a sweet kid growing up but she could be loud too…and...” Words fade and he shakes his head. Phillip grins.

“Yeah, there are a lot of them and they can be a lot to take in all at once. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out as and when. Baby steps.”

“Is it true that you all never forgot me?” His voice lowers and he hears Phillip’s sigh.

“Yeah it is. I remember Grandma Barnes when I was a kid. She talked about you all the time like you were just away from home. She visited the grave weekly and when it was your birthday, she used to get real quiet. Your photo was on the mantlepiece and it stayed there til just after she died and my dad and your sisters were packing up the apartment.”

Bucky listens, staring hard at the lake.

“God, I wish I could’ve made it back to you guys before…let her know…” His words fade and he glances at Katie when she gently squeezes his arm.

“You’re here now and we’re here too and we're not going anywhere,” she tells him.

* * *

Corrie watches how both Katie and Phillip hug him. Even from this distance, she can see how surprised Bucky is by their reaction. He honestly expected them to reject him. She’s glad that they haven’t. It will do him good to have family nearby.

“Are they Bucky’s family?” Rory enquires from beside her. Corrie looks at her and she nods.

“They are. He hasn’t seen them in a very long time.” She watches how Katie slides her hand through the crook of his elbow and the three of them begin to walk, probably towards the lake. She smiles to herself before returning her attention to her daughter whose cheeks are flushed red from the cold.

“C’mon you. I’m in the mood for some hot chocolate, how about you?”

“Do we have marshmallows and whipped cream?” she asks as they head into the living area.

“I think we do.”


	17. Disappearing Act.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rory is struggling to deal with life after her father. Understanding comes from a maybe unexpected source. 
> 
> TW for mentions of anxiety and violence.

**Disappearing Act.**

He’s half asleep when he hears the slam of a door within the complex and it jolts him to sudden wakefulness. Rapid footsteps thump past his door and when something crashes and shatters, he scrambles out of bed and heads out of his room. His eyes widen when he sees Corrie hurry past him, eyes wide with fear and skin pale in the darkness

“Hey, what’s going on?”

She doesn’t answer and he turns his head and sees that she’s chasing after Rory.

An end table has been tipped over and the wreckage of a glass vase is scattered across the floor.

“AMI, lights on at 25 per cent,” he instructs softly and immediately the main lights come on low, creating a soft golden aura. He goes after Corrie and Rory and pauses when he sees the child huddled down by the main door, making herself as small and inconsequential as possible. For a moment he just stares at her and feels a horrible chill flow up and down his spine. His heart gives an awful sickening warning thump in his chest.

_He remembers breaking free. The team who usually watched over him at gunpoint let down their guard. He’d fooled them into thinking he was asleep but he wasn’t. He’d been aware of every breath they took, every movement that they’d made, every murmur of conversation and when they least expected it, he’d bolted._

_They’d caught him of course and after that they weren’t so careless around him but seeing Rory huddled down on the ground reminds him of how when he’d realised he couldn’t escape, he’d huddled down on the ground to make himself as small as possible to protect himself against the beating that always followed_.

Bucky slowly swallows against the nausea that begins to threaten, realising the possible implications. He takes a shaky breath and takes an extra moment before he slowly approaches the pair. Corrie is talking to her daughter in a low calm voice but Rory doesn’t seem to be responding. She looks like she’s staring into space, eyes wide and unblinking. Bucky knows that while she looks like she’s doing nothing, her imagination will be doing all of the work instead. Corrie then senses his presence because she turns her head and she looks up at him.

“We’re okay here Bucky, it’s just a nightmare,” she tells him, the dismissal clear in her voice. Bucky takes a half step back and watches them silently, his hands slowly clenching and unclenching. He’s cold, aware of the ice that’s still chugging through his veins, nothing to do with the ambient temperature of the room. He takes a slow breath and then another.

“Corrie.” His voice is low, husky and as non-intrusive as he can make it. After a moment she slowly turns her head and looks up at him again. He sees how she begins to frown.

“Bucky?”

He licks his lips.

“I…kinda…know what she’s feeling right now. Would it be…okay if I talk to her…too?” Words are getting stuck, they’re fully formed in his head but struggling to get out of his mouth. He waits as she seems to assess him.

“Sure,” she agrees on a sigh and slowly, carefully Bucky sits on the floor beside Corrie but in front of Rory.

“Hey kiddo,” he begins, keeping his voice quiet. He doesn’t reach out to touch her.

“What you’re going through? It feels incredibly real, right? But it’s just inside of your head. I’m sure your mom has already told you that.” He pauses, glances at Corrie for a second before he looks back at Rory.

“I guess you had a nightmare huh? They’re awful. I get them sometimes and when I do, they scare me. They can come out of nowhere and I think that makes it worse.” He sees her blink. She’s still silent, immobile but he knows she’s heard what he said.

“A very long time ago, some really bad people took me from some people I cared deeply about, one who was my best friend. They kept me for the longest time and I was…hurt by them and more than once I tried to get away but back then they always caught me and they hurt me some more.” He keeps his voice low and matter of fact.

“When I managed to get away permanently, it took me a really long time to understand that and to believe it. I saw enemies and threats… everywhere and that’s when the nightmares started for me.” He watches her, sees how she lifts her head slightly and she makes eye contact with him.

“You still get them.”

He nods. “I do and you know, you’re probably confused because you had a really good day today. We had fun building that snowman, mom made you hot chocolate and we got to hang out later. You’re telling yourself that nothing bad happened to make you have that nightmare.”

Rory sighs raggedly in response.

“For me, when it happened, it was just my brain trying to get used to the new situation I was in because for so long I believed it was just a…time out…and that I would be caught again if I let my guard down. Took a real long time before that feeling began to go away.”

Rory just stares at him, her eyes almost luminous. He has her complete attention now.

“You just need time to get used to this new normal and to be kind to yourself in the process. Don’t be hard on yourself because you think that because you’re back with mom, everything should be okay. Sometimes it isn’t and you don’t understand why and it’s okay to not be okay and not understand why but it will get better.”

“Does it?” Rory’s voice sounds bleak and Bucky’s heart aches for her.

“Yeah it does. It got better for me because I’m here with you guys. Before the Blip happened, I would never have imagined all of this happening, that I’d be here, somewhere safe, trying to help people and having family nearby. One day you’ll realise that too. It’s a process, honey.” He then looks across at Corrie who is staring at him, eyes a little wider than normal, seemingly rapt in his story.

“Now it’s late, like _real_ late so why don’t you let your mom put you to bed and I’m gonna clean up in here.” He’s fully aware of the shards of broken glass that are scattered and glinting nearby. He begins to get to his feet as Rory gives a nod and does the same. He turns, eyes taking in where the broken glass is and he turns when he feels someone take his hand. Rory is looking up at him with solemn green eyes and then she hugs him, wrapping her arms around his upper body and squeezing him tightly. He reciprocates, gently rubbing her back until she looks up at him and lets go.

“Go to bed and be careful of the broken glass,” he whispers, his voice a little on the husky side.

* * *

He makes quick work of clearing up the debris, depositing it in the garbage. He’s busy sweeping up in case of any leftover microscopic remnants when he hears footsteps and sees Corrie walking slowly towards him. In her hand she carries two beer bottles. Bucky pauses and watches her approach, overwhelmed by the strangest sense of déjà vu.

“I thought you’d be sleeping,” Bucky comments, taking one of the bottles from her. He leaves the broom propped up against the wall behind him.

“I can’t,” Corrie admits on a sigh and he watches her go and sit on the couch and lean back against the cushions.

“You’re gonna wear yourself out,” he admonishes mildly as he sits down beside her. She casts him a look.

“Speak for yourself. When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?”

“You got me there.” He takes a mouthful of beer, feeling the ice coldness slide down his throat with delicious ease as he swallows. “Difference is, I don’t have a kid relying on me.”

She turns her head and she regards him.

“How do you know what to say to her? When I try it comes out tongue tied and trite. From you” she shrugs restlessly, “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I feel like I’m permanently walking on eggshells with her.” Those last few words come out on an exhausted sigh.

“You’re her mom and you’re bonded to her. I’m just a guy you work with.”

Corrie shakes her head. “No. No you’re not. You’re more than that. You have a way with people, with words that get through to them. You don’t patronise, you don’t ignore what’s in front of you. You listen and you understand.” She looks away, stares at her beer bottle. “I can never understand.”

“You understand her fear. You went through it yourself.”

“Then I should’ve at least realised that, understood _that.”_

“She’s been careful to hide it from you, from all of us.”

“Not from you, though.”

Bucky slowly shrugs. “I just understood her reaction to her fear.”

Another look his way.

“The way she huddled down like that?”

Bucky doesn’t answer her.

“She was hiding in a little space in her stepmother’s dressing room when I found her. When she was younger, when her father was on a rampage, I taught her to run and hide then. She was only little. You did that too?”

A slow one shouldered shrug. He takes another mouthful of his beer and swallows it down.

“I used to try and escape from my handlers. I’d lull them into a false sense of security and when they let their guard down, I bolted. I couldn’t get out and they’d eventually catch me, corner me and when they did….” He just shrugs one shoulder. Corrie’s eyes are wide.

“God,” she whispers. Once more he shrugs.

“It happened, a long time ago. Can’t change it now.”

“I know…but still…”

“It happened. I got through it. I’m here now.” Another of those shrugs, another mouthful of beer.

“So who do you talk to? When things get on top of you?”

Bucky looks at her. “Right now it’s you. Mostly it’s just you…” He sees her eyes widen again.

“You don’t talk to Sam? Isn’t he trained in that kind of thing?”

“Yeah. And I do. Sometimes. It’s just with you…I don’t know…it’s just easier I guess,” he admits. He sees the contemplative look on her face as she digests this.

“I’m honoured that you would trust me enough to share things with me. It can’t be easy.”

“No. It’s not easy to share stuff that’s so personal, so painful but you shared stuff with me about your marriage that I guess you’ve never shared with anyone apart from maybe Fury so it works both ways.”

“But it’s hard to take that first step, right? To be able to trust someone to open up to them just a little bit.”

“Yeah but we both did it.”

She smiles at him then and lifts her beer bottle towards him and he copies in a toast that makes the necks of the bottles clink together.

“We did.”

* * *

Bucky looks up as Corrie places a plate down in front of him. She can see the surprise in his blue eyes.

“Pancakes?”

“I heard they were your favourite.”

“It’s not my birthday. That’s in… March.” He tilts his head a little as he tries to remember, “Apparently.”

“You’re right. It is.” She watches as Sam appears. His eyes widen slightly when they see Bucky’s breakfast. He looks at Corrie and is about to open his mouth when he sees her retrieve another plate and place it down on the table in front of where he usually sits.

“There’s some for you too, Sam.” She also places a plate in front of her daughter.

“And you’ll need your strength to get through today.” This she directs at Bucky.

“What’s happening today?” Sam asks him, watching as he picks up his fork.

“Shopping trip,” he answers as he digs in. Sam pauses.

“Shopping trip?”

He lifts his eyes to Corrie as she places more plates on the table between them: bacon, eggs, toast.

“Rory needs clothes and some new books and since Corrie came along with me a few months back, I’m returning the favour.”

“You’re more than welcome to tag along too, Sam,” Corrie adds.

“I say this with the greatest of respect Corrie, but oh hell no,” Sam replies and Corrie chuckles.

* * *

The snow is beginning to melt in grey slushy heaps. The sidewalks shine with icy puddles. A freezing cold wind whistles around them as they navigate the sidewalk. Rory walks between her mother and Bucky. He’s careful to remain on the outside, closest to the road. It hasn’t escaped his attention that Rory’s eyes are everywhere. He’s noticed how she takes everything in, how they skate over each face, each alleyway, how they examine their reflection in every shop window they pass. He did it when he first got away after Project Insight. Still does even now, it’s a hard habit to break. The fact that she does it cracks something open deep inside of him.

“You okay, kiddo?” he enquires, keeping his voice low and she looks up at him and the smile she offers him is faint. She just nods.

“Good. Remember, the minute you’re done, you let us know and we’ll head back.”

Rory nods again.

They pause outside of Buchanan Books. Bucky stands beside Rory and watches as she takes in the window display before she looks at him.

“This place is owned by your family?”

Bucky nods, “Yeah it is.”

“The family who came to see you the other day?”

“My brother started the business, his son took over and his granddaughter now runs it. I like it a lot, I think you will too.” He watches how she looks at her mother and Corrie slowly nods in confirmation.

“They’re good people, sweetheart and it’s a wonderful store. I think you’ll like it a lot,” she replies.

“Okay, let’s go in.”

* * *

The store is busy. Bucky sees how Rory all but recoils at the amount of people present. She stays beside her mother and on her other side, Bucky takes in the variety of faces too. They’re perusing the stacks, checking out the titles, making purchases. He turns his head and looks at Rory when he hears her take a deep shaky breath.

“Bucky?” He turns his head and watches as Katie approaches them. There’s a smile of welcome on her face as she pauses beside him.

“Hey Katie,” he greets quietly and gives her a brief hug. He stands beside her and looks at Corrie and Rory.

“Ms Harris, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Likewise and please call me Corrie. This is my daughter Rory. Rory, this is Bucky’s niece, Katie.”

“Hey Rory. Welcome to Buchanan Books. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself the other day.” Katie’s eyes take in the variety of bags the three of them are carrying. “Wow, you’ve been busy.”

“Clothes shopping,” Rory confirms, smiling shyly.

“I _love_ clothes shopping though it’s not often I get the time to indulge.” She then looks at Corrie. “Are you shopping for anything in particular today or are you just checking the place out?”

“A bit of both,” Rory answers and Katie looks back at her and she smiles.

“Well, how about I show you our children’s and young adult section. You can let me know what you like to read, which authors you're into and I’m sure we’ll find something.” Once more she looks at Corrie. “Is there a budget?”

Corrie shakes her head. “No. No budget,” she replies. Katie holds out a hand and Rory gives her mother a wide eyed look.

“It’s okay honey, we won’t be far away,” Corrie promises. Bucky nods when she looks at him, almost looking for confirmation. She then looks at Katie and smiles slowly and takes her hand. Corrie relieves her of her packages and watches them make their way through the throng of customers. Once out of sight, her shoulders sag a little.

“Hey.” She looks at Bucky. He slides an arm across her shoulders and draws her up against him. “Lean,” he murmurs. She rests her forehead against his shoulder for a moment, drawing strength from him. She can smell the soap on his skin, a faint citrussy scent as well as the leather of his jacket. She closes her eyes for a second and lets herself lean, feeling his hand gently stroke her back. Then she takes a deep breath and straightens up again.

“Thanks,” she whispers and gently smiles, looking into his eyes.

“Any time,” he whispers back. He smiles back, ignoring the hard thump of his heart against his ribcage.

“Why don’t you go and check out some of the stacks? I can keep an eye on Rory,” he suggests. He sees the faint frown that floats across her face “Hey, this is me doing the job you assigned me to. Go on. Maybe we can go to the coffee shop afterwards. I’m sure Rory will want to check out her purchases over hot chocolate. My treat.” He waits until she turns and heads off to browse. He watches her for a second or two before taking a slow deep breath and he heads after Katie and Rory.

* * *

He sees Katie first. She’s talking to who he assumes is a customer. His eyes scan the groups of people clustered around various book stacks and tables. The hum of conversation is low, non-intrusive and nothing immediately catches his attention.

He glances back at Katie and sees that she’s still in conversation. He turns his head and sees the kids clustered around those various stacks and tables. He can’t see Rory. He frowns slightly as he begins to move, winding his way seamlessly around the customers, that frown deepening when he realises that he can’t see her anywhere. He keeps on walking, keeps on looking and all the while his right hand creeps to the base of his spine. He feels his heart begin to thump as he heads back the way he came and sees Katie standing where he’d last saw her, a puzzled frown on her face. It lightens slightly when she sees him but promptly fades again when she notices that he’s alone.

“Where’s Rory?” she asks him.

“I could ask you the same thing. What happened?”

“I got waylaid by a customer. He’s a regular before you ask. I turned away to deal with his enquiry and when I turned back, she was gone.”

Bucky sighs quietly and he turns his head and sees Corrie across the store. She’s alone.

“Damn it. I’d hoped maybe Rory went back to her mom.” He looks down at the bags he’s still carrying and Katie steps forward and takes them from him.

“I can store these behind the front desk if you need to look further.” He nods and then looks back at Corrie who’s looking at him. Bucky takes a deep breath and he heads towards her, Katie not far behind. He sees her expression change.

“Where’s Rory?” she asks him.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. She’s not in the kids’ section or any other part of the store.” He sees how she goes pale.

“Maybe something spooked her and she bolted,” he begins.

“I didn’t see her go by.” He hears the fear in her voice and he touches her shoulder.

“Stay here in case she makes her way back to you. I’m going to check something out.” He looks at his niece.

“If I’m not back in twenty minutes, call the cops.”

“I’m coming with you,” Corrie tells him but he shakes his head.

“Chances are she bolted. If that’s the case then she’ll probably make her way back and she’ll be glad to see you.”

“And what if she hasn’t bolted?”

“Then I’m more than qualified to deal with whatever happens next. Which it won’t be.” He stares at her. “She won’t have gone far so stay here. I know it’s tough but please. Stay here.” He then makes eye contact with Katie.

“I need you to do a sweep of the store, check out anywhere you think she may have gone. If something or someone has spooked her then she may be hiding.” He remembers how small she’d made herself the previous night. “Call me if you find her. I’ll do the same.” He sees Phillip join the group.

“Stay with Corrie. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Corrie opens her mouth to argue.

“Let me do my job. Stay here,” he instructs and he turns and makes his way out of the rear of the store, reaching beneath his jacket at the base of his spine and extracting his gun. He holds it loosely in his right hand as he heads out.

* * *

The door takes him out of the building into a small courtyard. Bucky moves silently. His eyes scan his surroundings and he listens carefully. All around him he can hear the sounds of the city: sirens, traffic, music. He filters them all out as he scopes out the small courtyard, checking behind garbage cans, listening for any ragged breathing but he finds and sees nothing.

He emerges from the courtyard and out into a back alley. He looks up and down. The road is seemingly deserted. Then something catches his attention. Between the dumpsters is someone who is crouched down. He can only see them side onwards but he takes in the grubby looking green jacket and an overloaded shopping cart beside them and he heads towards it. He moves quietly but quickly and the person doesn’t realise he’s there until he’s almost on top of him.

“You can come with me if you want to. I know all the best places to…”

Bucky sees Rory huddled on the ground, knees tucked beneath her chin, arms wrapped around those knees. She’s not looking at her companion but her body language is tense. Bucky puts his weapon away.

“She’s not going anywhere bud so why don’t you beat it?” he interrupts and the guy starts and then turns his head and looks up at him. Homeless. Grubby. He frowns for a moment.

“You her dad or somethin’?” he demands belligerently. Bucky can see it’s a guy.

“Or somethin’. She’s with me and you’re scaring her.” He sees how Rory looks up at him with wide surprised eyes, grubby tear tracks marking the skin beneath those eyes. Bucky pulls out his wallet as the guy straightens up and he takes twenty dollars out and hands it to him. The guy’s eyes are wide with surprise.

“Go get something to eat.”

“I wasn’t gonna do anythin’, she was cryin’, I was just tryin’ to help.”

“I know and I appreciate it. We’ll be okay.” He watches how the man looks at Rory again.

“You know him, right? Cos I’m happy to stick around if he’s botherin’ you.”

“No. It’s okay. I do know him, he’s telling the truth,” Rory confirms, her voice barely above a whisper. The homeless guy sends Bucky a distinctively suspicious look but mindful of the twenty dollars he’s given him, he makes a quick exit.

* * *

Bucky watches him trundle along the street pushing his shopping cart before he looks back at Rory. He then crouches down in front of her, careful to keep his distance.

“You okay? You gave us quite a start as your mom would say.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“There’s nothing to apologise for. You want to tell me what happened in there? One minute Katie was showing you the kids’ section and the next minute you’d gone.”

For a long moment Rory is silent but she’s staring into space and Bucky sees the vacant glassy eyes. Recognises it.

“You’re not in any trouble, though I need to let your mom know you’re okay soon otherwise she’s going to call in every favour she’s owed at work to send out a search party.”

“She must hate me.” Another whisper.

“Hey. Your mom will be worried right now but she doesn’t hate you and she never will. I can promise you that.” She looks at him.

“I spoiled everything.”

“No you didn’t. You got overwhelmed. It happens.”

“Bet it doesn’t happen to you.”

Bucky quietly exhales. “You’d be surprised. I didn’t know I had family here til Katie introduced herself to me in that very store. Scared the living you know what out of me and do you know what I did? I ran. Left your mom behind in the store and headed out of there pronto.”

“Really?”

Bucky just nods. “Your mom was not amused but she understood why and she will understand why you left.”

“There was someone in the store. He looked so much like him.”

“Like who?” He thinks he knows who she’s alluding to but he waits anyway. Rory blinks and two tears leak out. “Who, Rory?” he gently enquires.

“My dad. He looked at me and he smiled at me. I thought it was him.”

“It wasn’t. Your dad can’t hurt you ever again.”

“Are you sure you killed him?”

Bucky gives pause as he regards her. Recognises the naked fear in her eyes.

“One hundred percent.” He’s seen morgue pictures but she doesn’t need to know that.

“Then why did he smile at me?” She watches as Bucky shuffles forward and then lowers himself down beside her. He still keeps a little distance between them as he rests his elbows on his upturned knees.

“I don’t know. Maybe you look like someone he knows? Maybe he was just being…friendly? Sociable? Polite?” He turns his head and he looks at her.

“It wasn’t your dad, I can promise you that. No one is getting close to you without your say so. Your mom will make sure of that and so will I. You’re safe honey, I promise.” He starts a little as he hears his phone begin to buzz somewhat persistently.

“That will be your mom wanting an update so I’m going to tell her that you’re okay and when you’re ready, we’re going to go back to the book store. Katie lives upstairs and I’m going to talk to her and let you stay up there for a little while until you feel better. Is that okay?” He begins to pull his phone out of his jacket pocket, still watching her and he sees her slow nod of agreement.


	18. Run Deep.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrie has more self doubts but the connection between herself and Bucky grows stronger.

**Run Deep.**

Corrie watches Bucky stride away and it takes every ounce of her willpower not to follow him.

“Ms Harris? Corrie?”

Corrie’s head snaps around and she looks at Katie who is regarding her steadily.

“Why don’t you come upstairs where it’s quieter?” she suggests.

“What about Rory, if she comes back?”

“My dad will keep an eye open and will let us know if that happens. I promise.” She casts a look at her father who just nods. Corrie shakes her head.

“The store’s busy, he might not see her and if she doesn’t see me she may try to find me by going elsewhere.”

“Then one of my other employees will take over the cash desk and my dad will watch for her exclusively. Please Corrie.”

Corrie stares at her and she then sighs and nods. She watches as Katie collects various packages from behind the cash desk before she follows her across the store and into her own private quarters.

* * *

It’s quiet in here. Corrie watches as she places the packages on the kitchen table and she copies. The last time she was here, she, Fury and Sam were trying to figure out where Bucky was and Katie was in hospital with serious head injuries. Looking at her now, those bruises are all but gone.

“How about I make us some coffee?” Katie suggests. Corrie remains stationary beside the kitchen table and for a second just stares into space, not answering or acknowledging the other woman. After a moment she snaps out of it, looks at her and nods.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” Katie points to the green couch that curves into the big bay window that dominates the other room and Corrie heads towards it but the nerves jumping around the pit of her stomach and sizzling through her veins don’t allow her to relax enough to sit down. Instead she heads towards the photographs that grace the chimney breast wall to her right. She just stares at them for a moment, not really taking them in as she takes a slow deep breath to try and calm the panic squirming inside of her. Then she recognises Bucky. In his army uniform. A younger, smiling, unknowing Bucky Barnes. He’s standing with three other people, two young women and a man she recognises as Charlie. He has his arms slung across his sisters’ shoulders and he’s grinning broadly. It takes her a little by surprise. He had such a knockout smile back in the day. There’s another photo beside it, of Bucky with his arms around another, older woman. She just stares at it.

“That’s my great grandma, Bucky’s mom.” Katie’s voice is quiet beside her and she starts a little. “Sorry.”

“Sneaking up silently on a person seems to be a Barnes trait,” Corrie comments as she turns her head and looks at her. She’s carrying two coffee mugs. Katie smiles somewhat apologetically as she hands her one of them.

“I haven’t added anything to yours. I’m not sure how you take it.”

Corrie looks down at it and smiles somewhat absently. “This is fine. Thank you.” She then turns to look back at the photos that are framed on the wall.

“The Barnes Hall of Fame,” Katie murmurs, standing beside her. “The ones of Bucky with his siblings and his mom used to belong to my grandpa. He left them to me because I loved looking at them.”

Corrie smiles very faintly. “They’re an amazing snapshot of history. Bucky said there are a lot of family around?”

“Yeah. We got a lot. My Great Aunt Rose, Bucky’s youngest sister had six children and they all have children and grandchildren. Fortunately I’m an only child and so is my dad.”

“You don’t mention your mum.”

“She died when I was twelve. After that it was just me and my dad and Grandpa. I spent all my time after school and during the holidays here helping out. What about you?”

Corrie takes a sip of her coffee. “Same. Well in that it was just my mum and me. She died when I was at university. My dad, I have no idea about. I was married for a while, it ended very badly. We divorced, I got custody of Rory but he took her from me and I’ve only recently found her and got her back.” She looks at her. “It was all connected to what happened to you. Did Bucky explain that part to you? About Jonathan Kelly? Oh of course he did. I’m sure I mentioned him to you at the briefing also. I’m sorry I’m not usually this scatter brained.”

“I know that. You’ve a lot on your plate right now,” Katie replies softly.

“I wish I knew what was happening,” Corrie sighs.

“Bucky will be in touch once there’s news, I’m sure of it,” Katie replies.

She watches as Corrie turns away from the photos on the wall and at the same time pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket. She stares at the screen for a moment.

“It hasn’t been all that long. Bucky will find her,” Katie tells her. Corrie doesn’t answer as she calls his cell phone. She ignores the hard thump of her heart against her ribs as she waits for him to answer. A moment passes before she hears his voice.

“Hey. I got her. She’s safe.”

Corrie exhales loudly, feeling accompanying relief flood through. She blinks back tears.

“She is? Where is she?”

“Not far. Down from the store.”

“She hid again, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” She frowns slightly. There’s more to it she’s sure and it sounds like a conversation for another day.

“We’re going to head back in another minute or two but she’s okay Corrie, I promise.”

“I believe you,” Corrie whispers. There’s a brief pause before she hears him speak again.

“We’ll be back shortly,” he tells her and disconnects the call.

Once he does, she allows herself to sink down onto the couch. She leans forward to place the coffee mug on the coffee table in front of it and she then leans back and quietly sighs.

“She’s okay?”

Corrie opens her eyes and looks at Katie. She just nods.

“She wasn’t far away. Hiding.” She watches the younger girl come over and sit down beside her.

“You said your ex-husband took her away from you.”

“He kidnapped her and he disappeared with her. The night you were hurt? Jonathan Kelly worked for my ex. It was a ruse to get Bucky to him. He had aspirations of presenting him to _his_ boss, who we haven’t yet identified.”

“Presenting him?”

“The Winter Soldier. He thought he would gain brownie points by kidnapping a notorious assassin and giving him to whoever his boss was.”

“And what happened to him, your ex?”

Corrie looks at her for a long moment. “He's dead. My ex was a violent man. He was violent to me, he was violent to his second wife and he was violent to Rory. He was trying to kill me when Bucky…” She doesn’t finish the sentence but Katie understands.

“He said he took care of Kelly.”

“He did.” She doesn’t elaborate. She doesn’t need to but Katie understands.

“Good.” Katie murmurs.

“You’re okay with that? With the how?”

Katie exhales somewhat shakily. “You know, I shouldn’t be? My uncle took a life but like you said, that man used me to get back at him when he should’ve faced him head on. Instead he hurt me and all for revenge.”

Corrie regards her. “If you need to talk to someone about what happened to you then I can put you in touch with people who can help you, you know that don’t you?” She continues to watch her and sees the younger woman pull herself together and she sees her nod. “I do. Thank you but I’m okay.”

“The offer is always there in case you change your mind.”

* * *

Corrie gets to her feet when she hears the door open and her eyes widen when she sees Rory step through, Bucky by her side. She’s pale, scared almost. Corrie takes a couple of steps towards her and then stops, unsure of how to proceed. Rory sees her and she runs into her arms. Corrie holds on tightly, swallowing against the lump in her throat. She looks at Bucky and mouths a silent ‘ _thank you_ ’.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” Rory whispers.

“I’m just glad you’re okay, that you’re safe.” Rory draws back and looks at her with smeary green eyes.

“I didn’t mean to spoil your day. I know you were looking forward to it.”

Corrie hugs her again, feeling her arms tighten around her.

“We’ll have plenty more days in the future. I’m thinking maybe today was a little too soon. You still need time to acclimatise and there’s no time limit on when that should happen.” Corrie looks at her again.

“Come and sit down. We can talk, or not. Mostly we can just relax for a little while.” Rory nods at her mother’s suggestion and she leads her back to the couch.

* * *

Presently a cup and a plate of cookies appear on the coffee table in front of her. Rory looks at Katie and she smiles somewhat shyly.

“Thank you,” she whispers. Katie dimples a smile in response.

“You’re welcome. Be sure to try the cookies, they’re my great-grandmother’s recipe and they’re very good.” She then looks at Corrie for a brief moment.

“The store will be closing shortly. What I’d like to do, if you’re both agreeable, is when I lock up the store, for you to return downstairs, have a look at what we have on offer and you can choose some titles to take back home. You can take as long as you want and your mom, Bucky and myself and my dad will be on hand to help if you need us. How does that sound?” she suggests. Rory’s eyes go wide and she looks at her mother before returning her attention to Katie and she’s nodding.

“That would be very nice. Thank you.”

* * *

It’s later and the store is closed for the evening. Corrie had seen Phillip flip over the sign on the door and now she watches her daughter investigate the titles in the children’s section with Katie on hand to offer assistance and advice.

“How are you doing, mom?” Bucky murmurs. She looks at him and smiles somewhat faintly.

“Better thanks to you.”

“I’m glad.”

“I got the impression that there was more you needed to say to me but couldn’t with Rory beside you. What was it?”

“We can talk about it back at the complex,” he answers, his voice still low and Corrie sighs.

“Tell me now. When I get back to the complex, I’m going to be spending the rest of the evening taking care of Rory or dealing with admin stuff connected to work.”

She hears him sigh.

“Okay.” He touches her shoulder and moves her a couple of steps to the left, looking over his shoulder at Rory to make sure they can’t be overheard.

“Rory told me that she ran because she saw someone in the store who looked like her father. He even smiled at her and that’s what spooked her.” He watches her eyes slowly widen at his words.

“He’s dead.”

“I know, I saw the morgue photos myself.”

“You took him down, Bucky.”

“I know that too but I had to double check.”

“You were doubting your instincts?”

He slowly shrugs. “I wasn’t, not really but it doesn’t hurt to make sure.”

“God,” Corrie murmurs, turning her attention to Rory and taking in the pile of books already nestled in her arms.

“I had a quiet word with Phillip and he’s emailed today’s security footage to your work email and you can check for yourself. Chances are it was just a guy choosing books for his own kid, maybe he’d thought about approaching her and asking her about recommendations or maybe he was just being…I don’t know…a nice guy but whatever his intentions, unintentionally or not, he spooked her.”

“And she has so much to cope with right now as it is. You know, I should’ve delayed this shopping trip until she was more ready. It was far too soon.”

“She was doing okay til she saw him. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“And yet I still do.” She sighs again and closes her eyes as she slowly shakes her head.

“This is hard, Bucky. So hard.”

“I know.” She feels his hand on her shoulder and she opens her eyes and looks into his. “But you’ll get through it. I’ve got faith in you and I’m sure Rory does too. It’s just gonna take some time.”

* * *

Time.

Corrie watches the security footage Phillip had emailed over again and sees the man Bucky alluded to who had spooked Rory and yes, she can see a faint resemblance. It all happens so quickly. He appears, examines a few of the titles and then makes eye contact with Rory. She can see the moment that she’s spooked, how still she goes for a moment or two. The man turns and begins to speak to Katie and that’s when Rory bolted. A scant moment later Bucky appears and she watches how he remains at the entrance to the children’s section. It’s a good place to stand, with a clear view of the entire area and she sees how his eyes scan the people standing around. Not once but twice. He quickly realises she isn’t there and Corrie watches as he disappears from view as he searches for her.

The man has been identified and verified by Katie and Phillip as being a regular to the store for a number of months. He’s a divorced dad with two daughters around Rory’s age. Both Katie and Phillip have vouched for him but Corrie still does a deep dive on him to be absolutely sure. Everything has checked out. He’s squeaky clean, not even a parking ticket to his name.

It had felt like hours that Rory had been missing when in truth it was probably more like minutes. After that she’d withdrawn into almost complete silence. She’s reverted back to not sleeping at all now and Corrie struggles between concern and real fear. No matter what both she and Bucky have told her, Rory seems almost convinced that her father is alive and biding his time and that he’ll show up and take her away once more and her fear has very real value attached to it. During the Blip he’d disappeared and then once everything was reversed, he’d reappeared. She’d had five years of relative freedom with Alex and her parents and all she has now is her mother who she was told was dead and an all pervading sense of not being entirely free and not completely trusting those around her who tell her that she is. A perverse part of her almost wishes her ex was still alive because there’s no way anyone here would let him get near to her, least of all Bucky.

Bucky has said that she needs time and she understands that. Time is supposed to be the greatest healer but Corrie can’t help but think that perhaps her daughter needs to heal somewhere else. Being here is a little too close to everything. Perhaps they need to put some distance between it all.

She closes down her laptop and closes the lid and she sighs, exhausted but she knows that she’s far too wired to sleep. Her phone buzzes with a text and she looks at it frowning at the number.

**_“Ms Harris. This is Will French. Would you be willing to call me when you have a spare few moments? I’d really appreciate it.”_ **

She stares at the message for another minute and she wonders what he could possibly want. She hasn’t seen or spoken to either of them since the funeral. She calls the number. He answers almost immediately.

“Mr French, it’s Corrie Harris, I just got your text.”

“Thanks for getting back to me so promptly Ms Harris.” He sounds vaguely surprised to hear from her at all.

“How can I help you?” she asks.

“It’s about Rory. I have a proposition and I was wondering whether you’d be interested in hearing it?”

* * *

Bucky emerges from his room and pauses when he sees Corrie sitting alone at the dining table just staring at her phone. She’s wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair braided back from her face which is currently frowning at the screen. He watches as she huffs out a sigh and drops it on the table surface and then pushes it away. She rests her head in her hands, shoulders slumped and he can feel every ounce of the weight of the world that she’s currently carrying.

She hears him approach. Her head pops up and she sits upright and something clenches in his chest when he sees her quickly wipe at her eyes and then smile at him.

“Hey. I’d ask whether you’re having trouble sleeping but then I’d forget who I was talking to.” Her voice is a little rough, somewhat husky. Bucky doesn’t answer immediately, just drops down on the chair at her left and angles his body so he’s facing her directly.

“What’s up?” he asks instead. He sees the flash of surprise. “And don’t deny it, contrary to opinion, I’m not an idiot,” he tacks on when she opens her mouth, no doubt to deny that there is anything wrong. She sighs.

“It’s been a hell of a few days, Buck,” she answers instead.

“I know. It’s been a hell of a few weeks Corrie but this is the first time I’ve seen you cry, so what gives?”

She just stares at him but he stares right back and finally she gives in, her shoulders slumping again.

“Damn it…”

“Call it me returning the favour. If it was me sitting brooding here by myself, I know you’d bug me til I shared what was on my mind. It’s just you and me. Talk.”

She stares at him for another minute.

“Will French has been in touch. Alex’s father?”

“I remember. What did he want?”

“For Rory and me to spend Thanksgiving with them. They were close to Rory and now that their daughter is gone…they have no one but Rory and they’ve invited us over for the day.”

“So what are you going to do?”

Corrie just shrugs.

“You’re worried about family ties given what Rory has been going through. You think it might be a bad idea?”

Another shrug.

“All you can do is talk to Rory about it. Get her opinion. She seemed close to them at the funeral, you said yourself that Alex looked on her as her own kid, maybe it’ll help Rory too because she’s got to be grieving over Alex too.” He sees the thoughtful expression that crosses her face at this.

“I didn’t think of it that way. Of course she misses her too and they’re good people. I’ll talk to her tomorrow, get her opinion.” Bucky sees how she almost smiles to herself, satisfied a decision has been made. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Bucky answers somewhat warily.

“Thanksgiving. You didn’t tell us what you’re doing, except that you’re doing something. Care to share?”

Bucky gives a sigh.

“Steve and Fury put me in touch with a shelter helping homeless veterans. Before I got this gig, I’d help out here and there wherever I could. Usually by talking and listening. Taking food to various camps, that kinda thing. I’m going to be spending the day at a food kitchen, helping out where possible.” His voice lowers a little. For a moment Corrie doesn’t answer, just stares at him with mild surprise.

“That’s where you head to on your days off?”

“Sometimes.” He makes eye contact again. “What?” he asks when she continues to stare at him.

“The analogy of still waters very much applies to you, James Barnes,” she tells him. She sees the bashful smile that flits across his face at her words.


End file.
